(ChemotherapyAdvisor) – Postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) is not associated with improved survival for elderly patients with completely resected, stage III non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with N2 lymph node involvement, according to results of a study published in Cancer online February 13.
Noting the potential role of PORT for this population remains controversial, the authors used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry linked to Medicare records to compare survival of a concurrent cohort of 1,307 elderly patients 66 years of age or older who had N2 disease treated with and without PORT. Use of PORT in 710 patients (54%) was not associated with improved survival (HR=1.11) at 1 and 3 years.
“These findings have important clinical implications, because SEER data indicate that a large percentage of elderly patients currently receive PORT despite the lack of definitive evidence about its effectiveness. The potential effectiveness of PORT should be evaluated further in randomized controlled trials,” the authors wrote.
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