Clinicopathological Characteristics and Survival Outcomes for Pneumonectomy: a Population-Based Study

Abstract

Background: Prognostic factors in pneumonectomy (PN) are not yet fully defined. This study is to analyze and evaluate long-term survival after PN for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: We obtained data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database for patients who underwent PN between 2004 and 2015. In order to reduce bias and imbalance, propensity score matching (PSM) analysis was performed. We used Kaplan-Meier curves to estimate overall survival (OS), performed univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses to identify independent prognostic factors for OS, and applied the Cox proportional hazards model to create a forest plot. Results: A total of 1557 PN patients from the SEER database were included. The patients were grouped according to the side of PN. Before matching, OS was worse after right PN (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.303; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.133-1.498; P<0.001), but survival difference between groups was not significant after matching (HR: 1.061; 95% CI 0.912-1.235; P=0.443). Regression analysis revealed that age, grade, N-stage, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy were independent predictors of OS (P<0.05). Chemotherapy was associated with improved OS (HR: 0.709; 95% CI 0.609-0.825; P<0.001), but radiotherapy was associated with increased risk of death in OS (HR: 1.268; 95% CI 1.061-1.561; P=0.009). On the forest plot, patients with primary overlapping lesions had better OS (HR: 0.684; 95% CI 0.497-0.941; P=0.020) in left, vs right, PN; patients diagnosis during 2004 to 2007 had lower OS (HR: 0.576; 95% CI 0.346-0.960; P=0.034) for left PN vs right PN.Conclusions: Laterality was not a significant prognostic factor for long-term survival after PN for NSCLC. Chemotherapy was a significant independent predictor of improved OS, while radiotherapy appeared to be a negative prognostic factor with increased risk of death in OS.