Objective: To investigate the survival and prognostic factors in patients undergoing potentially curative resection of stage IIIA-N2 non-small cell lung cancer.
Methods: Clinical data of eighty-nine patients, who underwent curative operation from January 2003 to April 2007 in the Peking University First Hospital and were pathologically diagnosed as stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC, were reviewed. The patients were followed up until death or the cut-off date. The overall 3-year and 5-year survival rates were calculated, and Cox proportional hazard model was used to determine the clinical and pathological risk factors and evaluate their influence on the survival.
Results: The three-year and five-year survival rates were 51.7% and 31.5%, respectively. The univariate Cox regression analysis revealed five significant factors associated with prognosis: the arm of age < 55, T3 stage, lymphovascular invasion (LVI), multiple positive N2 station and the number of positive N2 nodes > 3 were found to be at increased risk of tumor-related death, and those risk factors were confirmed especially in the age ≥ 55 group. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated three independent prognostic factors: T3 stage, LVI and multiple positive N2 station.
Conclusions: The results of this preliminary study show that T3 stage, lymphovascular invasion and N2 level (single or multiple station) are associated with the prognosis of stage IIIA-N2 NSCLC patients after potentially curative resection, and the characteristics of age < 55 and the number of positive N2 nodes > 3 may imply worse prognosis.