Multicenter retrospective study of prognostic impact of adjuvant therapy for cisplatin-unfit patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Standard adjuvant therapy after resection of stage I-III non-small cell lung cancer in patients with good performance status is cisplatin. A multicenter retrospective study in Japan evaluated the prognostic impact of other adjuvant therapy in cisplatin-unfit stage II or III NSCLC patients because of age ≥ 75 years or renal dysfunction. After propensity score matching two groups of each 255 patients with versus without adjuvant therapy were formed. Adjuvant therapy was associated with significantly better disease-free survival (54.6% versus 35.1% at five years; p<0.01) and overall survival (76.1% versus 50.0% at five years; p<0.01). The authors conclude that adjuvant therapy could be beneficial for cisplatin-ineligible NSCLC patients aged ≥ 75 years or with renal dysfunction.