A propensity-matched analysis of stereotactic body radiotherapy and sublobar resection for stage I non-small cell lung cancer in patients at high risk for lobectomy.

Abstract

e20076 Background: The aim of this study was to perform a survival comparison between stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and sublobar resection (SLR) in patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at high risk for lobectomy. Methods: All patients who underwent SBRT or SLR because of medical comorbidities for clinical stage I NSCLC from January 2008 to December 2015 were reviewed retrospectively. Propensity score matching was performed to reduce selection bias between SBRT and SLR patients based on age, gender, performance status, tumour characteristics, pulmonary function. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were estimated with Kaplan–Meier method. Results: Forty-nine patients were matched into each group of SBRT and SLR (include 27 underwent segmentectomy, 22 underwent wedge resection). There were 32 and 30 men with median age of 67 and 69 years, respectively. Median follow-up was 25 months. In terms of treatment-related mortality, the 30- day mortality rates for the SBRT and SLR groups were 0 and 2.0 %, respectively. Patients treated by SBRT had a tendency to increase 3-year OS compared with SLR (94.0% versus 78.1%; P = 0.064).There was no difference between two groups in 3-year RFS (61.8% versus 65.7%; P = 0.864). In a subanalysis, 3-year OS after SBRT was greatly better than wedge resection subgroup (94.0% versus 67.4%; P = 0.026), but there was no significant difference between SBRT and segmentectomy in 3-year OS (94.0% versus 88.0%; P = 0.212). Conclusions: SBRT had a tendency to increase OS compared with sublobar resection in patients who are not medically fit for lobectomy with clinical stage I NSCLC. However, OS after SBRT was better than wedge resection subgroup. SBRT can be an alternative treatment option to segmentectomy for patients who cannot tolerate lobectomy because of medical comorbidities. A randomized prospective study is necessary to determine survival in compromised SBRT and sublobar resection.