Table 2.

Descriptive statistics for each group.

Group	Gender (%)	Age	Weight	Diagnosis	Ecog Ps	Stage
Controls (n = 95)	males = 55%	56.34 ± 0.677 (95*)	76.73 ± 1.58 (93*)	Healthy subjects (n = 75)	0 (100%)	NV
	females = 45%			Patients suffering from non-neoplastic diseases# (n = 20)	0 (100%)	NV
Oncologic patients (n = 186)	males = 59%	65.27 ± 0.877 (186*)	74.00 ± 1.92 (186*)	Carcinoma (n = 178)	0–1 (38%) 2–3 (62%)	I –IIIA 20% IIIB– IV 80%
	females = 41%			Mesothelioma, and sarcoma (n = 8)

Results are mean ± S.D and n (the number of patients and controls in parentheses,

^*indicates the number depending of missing data).

^#asthma, hypertension, allergic rhinitis, muscle pain, high cholesterol levels.