Lobectomy versus stereotactic body radiotherapy in healthy patients with stage i lung cancer

Abstract

Objectives Stereotactic body radiotherapy is an effective treatment for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer who are not healthy enough to undergo surgery; however, the relative efficacy versus surgery in healthy patients is unknown. The National Cancer Database contains information on patient health and eligibility for surgery, allowing the long-term survival associated with lobectomy and stereotactic body radiotherapy to be compared in healthy patients with clinical stage I disease. Methods The National Cancer Database was queried for patients who underwent lobectomy or stereotactic body radiotherapy for clinical stage I lung cancer between 2008 and 2012. Healthy patients were selected by excluding patients not offered surgery because of health-related reasons and only including patients documented to be free of comorbidities. Results A total of 13,562 comorbidity-free patients with clinical stage I lung cancer treated with lobectomy were compared with 1781 patients treated with stereotactic body radiotherapy. Time-stratified Cox proportional hazards models found lobectomy to be associated with a significantly better outcome than stereotactic body radiotherapy for both T1N0M0 tumors (hazard ratio, 0.38; 95% confidence interval, 0.33-0.43; P