Controlled study of survival of patients with clinically inoperable lung cancer treated with radiation therapy

Abstract

Five hundred and fifty-four patients with localized but clinically inoperable bronchogenic carcinoma were assigned treatments at random so that 308 patients were given radiation, whereas 240 similar patients, serving as concurrent controls, were given an inert compound. The median survival of patients given radiotherapy was 142 days as compared to 112 days for those who received the inert compound. Twenty-five per cent of the patients who had the longest survival after radiation lived at least 307 days as compared to 233 days for the “best” 25 per cent of the control group. The survival curves were farthest apart at the end of the ninth month (10.7 percentage points). At the end of the first year 18 per cent of the patients treated with radiation were still living as compared to 14 per cent of the control subjects. Patients with adenocarcinoma and squamous cell types were slightly responsive but radiation had no apparent effect in prolonging the lives of patients with anaplastic small cell carcinoma. There was no correlation between local roentgenographic response of the tumor and survival. The proportion of patients surviving was the sole criterion used for the evaluation of radiation therapy.