The impact of extent and location of mediastinal lymph node involvement on survival in Stage III non-small cell lung cancer patients treated with definitive radiotherapy.

PURPOSE: Several surgical series have identified subcarinal, contralateral, and multilevel nodal involvement as predictors of poor overall survival in patients with Stage III non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with definitive resection. This retrospective study evaluates the impact of extent and location of mediastinal lymph node (LN) involvement on survival in patients with Stage III NSCLC treated with definitive radiotherapy.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: We analyzed 106 consecutive patients with T1-4 N2-3 Stage III NSCLC treated with definitive radiotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania between January 2003 and February 2009. For this analysis, mediastinal LN stations were divided into four mutually exclusive groups: supraclavicular, ipsilateral mediastinum, contralateral mediastinum, and subcarinal. Patients' conditions were then analyzed according to the extent of involvement and location of mediastinal LN stations.

RESULTS: The majority (88%) of patients received sequential or concurrent chemotherapy. The median follow-up time for survivors was 32.6 months. By multivariable Cox modeling, chemotherapy use (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.21 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.07-0.63]) was associated with improved overall survival. Increasing primary tumor [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose avidity (HR: 1.11 [CI: 1.06-1.19]), and subcarinal involvement (HR: 2.29 [CI: 1.11-4.73]) were significant negative predictors of overall survival. On univariate analysis, contralateral nodal involvement (HR: 0.70 [CI: 0.33-1.47]), supraclavicular nodal involvement (HR: 0.78 [CI: 0.38-1.67]), multilevel nodal involvement (HR: 0.97 [CI: 0.58-1.61]), and tumor size (HR: 1.04 [CI: 0.94-1.14]) did not predict for overall survival. Patients with subcarinal involvement also had lower rates of 2-year nodal control (51.2% vs. 74.9%, p = 0.047) and 2-year distant control (28.4% vs. 61.2%, p = 0.043).

CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that the factors that determine oncologic outcome in Stage III NSCLC patients treated with definitive radiotherapy are distinct from those observed in patients who undergo surgical resection. The ultimate efficacy of radiation in locally advanced NSCLC is dependent on the intrinsic biology of the tumor.