Introduction: Prevalence of weight loss and depression and/or anxiety among lung cancer (LC) patients is high. Aim of this study was to examine malnutrition risk and presence of psychiatric disorders among geriatric LC patients as well as its influence on overall survival (OS).
Methods: This study was conducted at the Institute for Pulmonary Diseases of Vojvodina, Serbia. Assessment of malnutrition risk was done by the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and for assessment of psychiatric disorders Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS) was used. Survival follow-up was 5 years. 
Results: Out of total 119 observed patients with diagnosed LC 39 (32.8%) were aged over 65 and included in further analysis. Majority of this patients were male (71.8%) in ECOG PS 1 (79.5%). We observed psychiatric disorders in 43.6% of patients and 23.1% of patients had combined anxiety with depression. Malnutrition risk was observed in 41.0% of patients, out of those high risks in 30.8%. Combined psychiatric disorder and malnutrition risk was observed in 25.6% of patients. Median OS was 17.8 months. Significantly lower OS was observed in patients with combined malnutrition risk and psychiatric disorders (p=0.010). One-year survival was 64.1% (25/39), 3-years 15.4% and 5-years 2.6%.
Conclusion: Using easy-to-use questionnaires should be of great importance in everyday practice with the aim of early recognition of psychiatric disorders and prevention of cachexia. Considering decreased physiological reserve and other health conditions in the elderly special attention and personalized treatment approach should be made for each of those patients in order to improve their QoL.

NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS AMONG ELDERLY LUNG CANCER PATIENTS: SPECIAL ATTENTION FOR BETTER DISEASE MANAGEMENT