Adjuvant Chemotherapy After Neoadjuvant Therapy and Surgery for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

BackgroundThere is a dearth of data on outcomes of postoperative chemotherapy after neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery in patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The objective of this study was to compare survival outcomes in patients who did and did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy. MethodsA retrospective chart review was performed using our multicenter database to identify patients who received neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery for clinical T3 N0 or N1-N2 resectable NSCLC between 2009 and 2016. Survival outcomes were analyzed with the Kaplan-Meier method and a Cox proportional hazards model. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to control for selection bias in evaluation of overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) by matching age, sex, smoking history, Charlson Comorbidity Index, histologic type, and pathologic nodal status and stage. ResultsThe participants were 156 patients with a median age of 65 years. The median RFS of the whole cohort was 66.3 months; OS was not reached. Before PSM, patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy had significantly shorter RFS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.79; 95% CI, 1.13-2.82) and showed a trend for shorter OS (HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 0.78-2.39). After PSM, 50 patients were used for comparison in each group, and those receiving adjuvant chemotherapy did not have a more favorable RFS (HR, 1.33; 95% CI, 0.75-2.34) or OS (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 0.62-2.51). ConclusionsAdjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with favorable survival outcomes in patients treated with surgery after neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced NSCLC.