Clinical prognostic factors in patients with locally advanced (stage III) nonsmall cell lung cancer treated with hyperfractionated radiation therapy with and without concurrent chemotherapy: single-Institution Experience in 600 Patients

BACKGROUND:

Influence of potential clinical prognostic factors on overall survival (OS), local progression‐free survival (PFS), and distant metastasis‐free survival (MFS) in patients with locally advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer treated with hyperfractionated radiation therapy (HFX RT) with or without concurrent chemotherapy was investigated.

METHODS:

Three phase 3 and 2 phase 2 studies have been designed and executed with a total of 600 patients. HFX RT alone was given in 127 and HFX RT‐chemotherapy was given in 473 patients. HFX RT doses were either 64.8 grays (Gy) or 69.6 Gy using 1.2 Gy twice daily, or 67.6 Gy using 1.3 Gy twice daily. Chemotherapy consisted of concurrent carboplatin and etoposide in 409 patients and concurrent carboplatin and paclitaxel in 64 patients. Sex, age, Karnofsky performance score (KPS), weight loss (>5%), stage, histology, interfraction interval, and treatment (the addition of concurrent chemotherapy) were investigated as potential prognostic factors.

RESULTS:

The median OS, median local PFS, and median distant MFS times were 19, 21, and 23 months, respectively. Five‐year OS, local PFS, and distant MFS rates were 19%, 29%, and 35%, respectively. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that only age did not influence OS and local PFS, whereas female sex, lower KPS, less pronounced weight loss, lower stage, squamous histology, shorter interfraction interval, and treatment independently predicted better OS and local PFS. Only age and treatment did not influence distant MFS, whereas histology was of borderline significance.

CONCLUSIONS:

This study identified independent prognosticators of treatment outcome. These results may have implications for future studies in this disease. Cancer 2011. © 2011 American Cancer Society.