Abstract:

Background and purpose: Postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in completely resectable stage Ⅲ_A(N₂) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still controversial. The purpose of this study was to analyze the efficiency of PORT in completely resectable stage Ⅲ_A(N₂) NSCLC. Methods: The clinical data of 126 patients with stage Ⅲ_A(N₂) NSCLC who was treated with radical surgery from Jan. 2002 to Jan. 2007 were retrospctively analyzed. There were 126 patients for analysis; 70 patients received the postoperative chemotherapy alone (non-PORT), 56 patients received postoperative chemotherapy with radiotherapy. The 126 patients were analyzed the influencing factors of the overall survival (OS). Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the OS, and Log-rank was used to compare the difference of OS between the two groups. Results: The median survival time was 25.0 months in all the groups of patients. The 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates were 84.4%, 32.5%, 16.4%. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were 81.2%, 28.5%, 13.5% in non-PORT group, and 88.5%, 39.9%, 20.0% in PORT group. The median survival time was 22.4 months and 32.8 months, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.033). The median time of stage Ⅲ_A(N₂) NSCLC with locoregional recurrence was 9.6 months in non-PORT group and 17.0 months in PORT group, the difference was statistically significant (P=0.001). Univariate analysis showed that the number of lymph node metastasis station (P=0.001) and PORT (P=0.033) correlated with OS. Conclusion: PORT could improve the survival rate and reduce the locoregional recurrence of stage Ⅲ_A(N₂) NSCLC.

Key words: Non-small cell lung cancer, Survival rate, Postoperative radiothera