Brief Report
Survival after Sublobar Resection for Early-Stage Lung Cancer: Methodological Obstacles in Comparing the Efficacy to Lobectomy

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtho.2015.10.022Get rights and content
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Abstract

Introduction

Surgery is the treatment of choice for early-stage lung cancer (LC). Although lobectomy (L) is the historic standard treatment, the issue of whether long-term outcomes of sublobar resection (SL) are comparable is still under debate. The objective of this study was to perform a review of the literature on 5-year survival rates after SL compared to L for patients with early-stage LC.

Methods

A priori inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) observational studies, (2) L compared to SL for early-stage LC, (3) radiographic staging by computed tomography scan, and (4) 5-year survival reported. A Medline search through January 2015 resulted in 31 studies representing 23 distinct datasets. The absolute difference in 5-year survival was calculated and plotted for each study.

Results

L was performed in 4564 patients and SL in 2287 patients. Of 19 studies reporting the reason for SL, 11 indicated that SL was performed because of comorbidities or impaired cardiopulmonary function. Four studies showed no difference in 5-year survival, 13 favored L, and six favored SL. One propensity score study favored L and the other favored SL. Of 20 studies reporting recurrence rate, 11 favored L and nine favored SL.

Conclusions

Studies comparing 5-year survival rates of SL to L are sufficiently heterogeneous to prevent carrying out traditional meta-analysis. SL survival is often similar to L when adjustments are made for age, comorbidities, or impaired cardiopulmonary function. New approaches are needed for the comparison of L to SL.

Keywords

Epidemiology
Outcome
Systematic review

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Disclosure: Dr Taioli is the President of the Science and Policy Institute; she receives no compensation for this service. Dr Henschke reports grants from FAMRI outside the submitted work and is a named inventor on a number of patents and patent applications relating to the evaluation of pulmonary nodules on computed tomography scans of the chest that are owned by Cornell Research Foundation (CRF). Since April 2009, Dr Henschke has not accepted any financial benefit from these patents, including royalties and any other proceeds related to the patents or patent applications owned by CRF. In addition, Dr Henschke is the President of the Early Diagnosis and Treatment Research Foundation; she receives no compensation for this service. Dr Yankelevitz reports grants from AstraZeneca and FAMRI outside of the submitted work and is a named inventor on a number of patents and patent applications relating to the evaluation of diseases of the chest, including measurement of nodules. Some of these, which are owned by CRF, are nonexclusively licensed to General Electric. As an inventor of these patents, Dr Yankelevitz is entitled to a share of any compensation that CRF may receive from its commercialization of these patents. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.