Stage III NSCLC: Diversity of Treatment Practices and Outcomes in Real-World Setting
Posted: Thursday, September 30, 2021
Patient characteristics and treatment patterns appear to impact clinical outcomes for patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) differentially across countries, according to the results of an international, multicenter, retrospective study (KINDLE) conducted by Byoung-Chul Cho, MD, of the Yonsei University Health System, Seoul, and colleagues. The findings of this study were published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
“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,” stated the study investigators.
Patients with stage III NSCLC and at least 9 months of documented follow-up since diagnosis were enrolled from 19 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America (n = 3,151). Information concerning sociodemographics, clinical characteristics, performance status, and treatment patterns were collected, among other features. In addition, the association between these descriptive statistics and clinical outcomes was assessed.
The median age of patients was 63 years, 76.5% were men, 69.2% had a history of smoking, 53.7% had adenocarcinoma, and 21.4% had undergone curative resection. The most common treatment regimen was concurrent chemotherapy. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 12.5 months and 34.9 months, respectively. Progression-free and overall survival was found to be significantly (P < .05) associated with sex, region, smoking status, stage, histology, and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status. Patients with the highest median overall survival ratings were those of younger age, with stage IIIA NSCLC, with a better ECOG status, who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy, and/or who had surgery as initial therapy.
Unfortunately, the study authors indicated, nearly half of patients relapsed on initial therapy, many of whom had died at the time of data collection. “This reiterates the need for development of novel therapeutic agents for increasing the overall survival of patients with NSCLC along with improving progression-free survival in the first-line setting,” they concluded.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit jto.org.
