Methods of treatment and outcomes in locally advanced stage III lung cancer: population-based study

Objective: to assess the pattern of care and survival of Stage III lung cancer patients on the population-based data from Arkhangelsk Regional Cancer Registry (ARCR) for the period from 2000 to 2013. Materials and methods. Anonym data on all cases of the III stage malignant neoplasms of the trachea, bronchus and lung (C34, LC) observed in the Arkhangelsk Region (AO) from 2000 to 2013 were extracted from the database of the ARCR. Depending on treatment received, the patients were divided into surgical/combined therapy (S/CT), radiotherapy/chemoradiation (RT/CRT) and chemotherapy (CT) groups. Overall (OS) and LC-specific (LCSS) survival were calculated using actuarial and Kaplan-Meier methods, the differences were evaluated by log-rank. Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine the impact of initial characteristics on LCSS. Results. Altogether, S/CT, RT/CRT, and CT were received, respectively, by 135 (6.7%), 384 (19.0%), 321 (15.9%) patients with stage III lung cancer. Information about the treatment was not available in 1180 (58.4%) patients. That probably indicates the presence of contraindications to the special treatment. The median follow-up, OS., and LCSS for the entire cohort were, respectively, 8.2 years, 7.0 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 6.5-7.5) and 7.3 (95% CI 6.7-7.9) months. The median survival for the patients treated with S/CT, RT/CRT, and CT in small cell LC were 8.9 (95% CI 7.1-10.7), 13.0 (95% CI 11.4-14.6), and 6.1 (95% CI 5.8-9.0) months, respectively, P