Objectives: To assess how a decade of developments in systematic anticancer therapy (SACT) for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) affected overall survival (OS) in a large UK University Hospital.
Design: Real-world retrospective observational cohort study using existing data recorded in electronic medical records.
Setting: A large National Health Service (NHS) university teaching hospital serving 800 000 people living in a diverse metropolitan area of the UK.
Participants: 2119 adults diagnosed with advanced NSCLC (tumour, node, metastasis stage IIIB or IV) between 2007 and 2017 at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
Main outcomes and measures: OS following diagnosis and the analysis of factors associated with receiving SACT.
Results: Median OS for all participants was 2.9 months, increasing for the SACT-treated subcohort from 8.4 months (2007-2012) to 9.1 months (2013-2017) (p=0.02); 1-year OS increased from 33% to 39% over the same period for the SACT-treated group. Median OS for the untreated subcohort was 1.6 months in both time periods. Overall, 30.6% (648/2119) patients received SACT; treatment rates increased from 28.6% (338/1181) in 2007-2012 to 33.0% (310/938) in 2013-2017 (p=0.03). Age and performance status were independent predictors for SACT treatment; advanced age and higher performance status were associated with lower SACT treatment rates.
Conclusion: Although developments in SACT during 2007-2017 correspond to some changes in survival for treated patients with advanced NSCLC, treatment rates remain low and the prognosis for all patients remains poor.
Keywords: chemotherapy; epidemiology; oncology; respiratory tract tumours; thoracic medicine.
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