Real-World Treatment Patterns and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Stage III NSCLC: Results of KINDLE, a Multicountry Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Stage III NSCLC is a heterogeneous disease requiring a multimodal management approach. We conducted a real-world, global study to characterize patients, treatment patterns, and their associated clinical outcomes for stage III NSCLC.

Methods: KINDLE was a retrospective study in patients with stage III NSCLC (American Joint Committee on Cancer, seventh edition) diagnosed between January 2013 and December 2017, with at least 9 months of documented follow-up since index diagnosis. In addition to descriptive statistics, Kaplan-Meier methodology evaluated survival estimates; two-sided 95% confidence interval was computed. Cox proportional hazards model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results: A total of 3151 patients from more than 100 centers across 19 countries from Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America were enrolled. Median age was 63.0 years (range: 21.0-92.0); 76.5% were males, 69.2% had a smoking history, 53.7% had adenocarcinoma, and 21.4% underwent curative resection. Of greater than 25 treatment regimens, concurrent chemoradiotherapy was the most common (29.4%). The overall median progression-free survival (95% confidence interval) and median overall survival (mOS) were 12.5 months (12.06-13.14) and 34.9 months (32.00-38.01), respectively. Significant associations (p < 0.05) were observed for median progression-free survival and mOS with respect to sex, region, smoking status, stage, histology, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group status. In univariate and multivariate analyses, younger age, stage IIIA, better Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group status, concurrent chemoradiotherapy, and surgery as initial therapy predicted better mOS.

Conclusions: KINDLE reveals the diversity in treatment practices and outcomes in stage III NSCLC in a real-world setting in the preimmuno-oncology era. There is a high unmet medical need, necessitating novel approaches to optimize outcomes.

Keywords: Combined modality; Concurrent chemoradiotherapy; Immunotherapy; Lung cancer; Stage III NSCLC.