OBJECTIVE To determine the prognostic value for survival of various pretreatment characteristics and treatments in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. METHODS The retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the 81 files of advanced NSCLC patients treated with chemotherapy at the Oncology Unit, Rajavithi Hospital. Eighteen clinical variables were investigated and analysed as prognostic factors for survival. RESULTS The first chemotherapy regimens for the 81 patients included: etoposide plus platinum derivatives (41), new drugs (taxanes or gemcitabine) plus platinum derivatives (39) and one other platinum based regimen (1). The overall survival time for all patients was 39.4 weeks with a 95% confidence interval of 30 to 49 weeks. In the multivariate analysis, male gender; bone metastasis and liver metastasis are poor prognostic factors. Receiving palliative surgery and achieving objective response to first regimen chemotherapy are good prognostic factors. Patients who received either old or new drug combinations showed no difference in their survival as determined by univariate or multivariate analyses which could be due to limitations in the present retrospective study. However; this may show that regimens consisting of older, less expensive drug combinations still provide survival advantages in advanced NSCLC and should be considered in limited financial circumstances.