Factors predicting the surgical outcome in patients with T3/4 lung cancer

Locally advanced lung cancer, such as T3/4 tumors, is considered to have a significantly worse prognosis than lower-stage disease, and the treatment of these tumors is difficult. Nevertheless, the information regarding the optimal treatment of T3/4 lung cancers after an operation is still limited. This study evaluated the prognostic factors for the postoperative outcome in patients with T3/4 lung cancers.

The results of the surgical treatments were retrospectively analyzed for 212 patients with pathological T3 and 197 patients with T4 disease.

The global 5-year survival rate was 30.7 % in this series. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate in patients with T3 disease was 36.1 %, while that in patients with T4 disease was 24.8 %. The prognosis in females, those with N0-1 disease and those who underwent a complete resection was better than that of the other patients in both the T3 and T4 subgroups. The examination of the OS according to a time series showed that the rate was higher in more recent versus less recent years. From the standpoint of pulmonary metastasis (PM), the 5-year OS rates in T4 patients with PM and without PM were 38.6 and 17.4 %, respectively. Multivariate analyses demonstrated that female gender, T3 disease, N0-1 disease and postoperative treatment were significant favorable prognostic predictors for OS.

These findings suggest that surgical resection remains an important treatment option, especially in cases having the aforementioned factors.