A Prospective Randomized Study of Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Completely Resected Stage Ⅲ-N2 Non Small Cell Lung Cancer

摘要

Objective: To evaluate the effect of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy on survival after complete resection of stage Ⅲ-N2 non-small-cell lung cancer. Methods: From Jan. 1999 to Dec. 2003, one-hundred and fifty patients, who were diagnosed as stage Ⅲ-N2 non-small cell lung cancer after operation, were randomly devided into chemotherapy group and control group. The former received four cycles of chemotherapy with NVB (25 mg/m2,D1, D5)/paclitaxel (175 mg/m2, DI) and Carboplatin (AUC=5, D1). Results: In chemotherapy group, 75.8% (68/79) of patients had finished the 4 cycles of chemotherapy and no one died of toxic effects of chemotherapy.Twenty-five percent of the patients had grade 3-4 neutropenia and 2% had febrile neutropenia. The median survival for the entire 150 patients was 879 d, with 1-year survival rate of 81%, 2-year survival rate of 59% and 3-year survival rate of 43%. There was no significant difference in median survival between chemotherapy and control group (897 d vs 821 d, P=0.0527), but there was significant difference in the 1-year and 2-year overall survival (94.71%, 76.28% vs 512 d, P=0.122), but there was significant difference in the 2-year survival rate between two groups with brain metastases (66.7% vs 37.6% P＜0.05). The median survival after brain metastasis appeared was 190 days. Conclusion: Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy does not significantly improve median survival among patients with completely resected stage Ⅱ-N2 non-small-cell lung cancer, but significantly improves the 1-year and 2-year overall survival. It neither decreases the incidence of brain metastasis but put off the time of brain metastasis.