Abstract
Backgroundbeside the well known predominance of distant vs. loco-regional relapse, several aspects of the relapse pattern still have not been fully elucidated.Methodsprospective, controlled study on 88 patients operated for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in a 15 months period. Stage IIIA existed in 35(39.8%) patients, whilst stages IB, IIA and IIB existed in 10.2%, 4.5% and 45.5% patients respectively. Inclusion criteria: stage I-IIIA, complete resection, systematic lymphadenectomy with at least 6 lymph node groups examined, no neoadjuvant therapy, exact data of all aspects of relapse, exact data about the outcome of the treatment.Resultspostoperative lung cancer relapse occurred in 50(56.8%) patients. Locoregional, distant and both types of relapse occurred in 26%, 70% and 4% patients respectively. Postoperative cancer relapse occurred in 27/35(77.1%) pts. in the stage IIIA and in 21/40(52.55) pts in the stage IIB. In none of four pts. in the stage IIA cancer relapse occurred, unlike 22.22% pts. with relapse in the stage IB. The mean disease free interval in the analysed group was 34.38 ± 3.26 months.The mean local relapse free and distant relapse free intervals were 55 ± 3.32 and 41.62 ± 3.47 months respectively Among 30 pts. with the relapse onset inside the first 12 month after the lung resection, in 20(66.6%) pts. either T3 tumours or N2 lesions existed. In patients with N0, N1 and N2 lesions, cancer relapse occurred in 30%, 55.6% and 70.8% patients respectivelyRadiographic aspect T stage, N stage and extent of resection were found as significant in terms of survival. Related to the relapse occurrence, although radiographic aspect and extent of resection followed the same trend as in the survival analysis, only T stage and N stage were found as significant in the same sense as for survival. On multivariate, only T and N stage were found as significant in terms of survival.Specific oncological treatment of relapse was possible in 27/50(54%) patients.Conclusionthe intensified follow up did not increase either the proportion of patients detected with asymptomatic relapse or the number of patients with specific oncological treatment of relapse.
Highlights
Despite the well known predominance of distant vs. locoregional relapse in patients operated for primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), several aspects of the relapse pattern still have not been fully elucidated
Our hypothesis was that the reason for treatment failure in many operated patients, independently of the way of preoperative mediastinal assessment, could be the existence of clinically occult micrometastases at the time of operation, leading to early, unrecognized cancer relapse, usually with delayed, if with any specific treatment
Stage IIIA existed in 35(39.8%) patients, whilst stages IB, IIA and IIB existed in 10.2%, 4.5% and 45.5% patients respectively
Summary
Despite the well known predominance of distant vs. locoregional relapse in patients operated for primary NSCLC, several aspects of the relapse pattern still have not been fully elucidated. There are few reports addressing the pattern of relapse including exact onset of relapse, the way of detecting relapse (symptom based/controls) and treatment, taking account of tumour and patient related characteristics [3]. We set out to determine if intensified follow up of these patients could influence the outcome of treatment through earlier detection of relapse and initiation of treatment. Our hypothesis was that the reason for treatment failure in many operated patients, independently of the way of preoperative mediastinal assessment, could be the existence of clinically occult micrometastases at the time of operation, leading to early, unrecognized cancer relapse, usually with delayed, if with any specific treatment. The aim of the study was to assess whether the intensified follow up of the operated patients contributes to the earlier treatment of relapse or indicates the way of improving the preoperative patient selection
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