Background: Although irradiation and chemotherapy are unproved adjuvant treatments for completely resected N1 non-small cell lung carcinoma, previous studies may have been diluted by the inclusion of low-risk patients. Risk factors in this situation, however, are not yet well defined.
Methods: One hundred seven consecutive patients with complete resection of N1 disease who received no other therapy were studied to identify factors independently predicting the risk of freedom from local recurrence (FFLR), freedom from distant metastasis (FFDM), and overall survival (OS).
Results: Twelve factors were assessed for a potential prognostic relationship with FFLR, FFDM, and OS. Regression analyses revealed that the factors independently associated with an improved outcome were positive bronchoscopic findings (FFLR, p = 0.005), a greater number of dissected N1 nodes (FFDM, p = 0.02), and a lesser T stage (OS, p = 0.01). Classification and regression tree analyses were then used to separate the patients into risk groups.
Conclusions: Although these results require corroboration in further studies, they may aid the design of trials examining therapies used to decrease rates of local recurrence or distant metastasis.