Efficacy of Respiration-controlled Radiotherapy Among Patients With Locally Advanced-stage Lung Cancer: A Population-based Study.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Definitive radiotherapy is the main treatment modality for patients with locally advanced stage lung cancer and a good performance status who are ineligible for surgery. Respiration-controlled radiotherapy (RCRT) has been recommended, but its effectiveness has been debated in the literature. Therefore, we aimed to study the efficacy of RCRT in definitive radiotherapy for locally advanced-stage lung cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We identified lung cancer patients diagnosed between 2011 and 2021 using data from the Taiwan Cancer Registry and related databases. In our primary analysis, we applied propensity score weighting (PSW) to balance observable potential confounders. We then compared the hazard ratio (HR) of death between the RCRT group and the non-RCRT group. Additionally, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of other outcomes and performed various supplementary analyses.

RESULTS: The primary analysis included 3,020 patients. Overall survival did not significantly differ between the RCRT group and the non-RCRT group, with a PSW-adjusted HR of 0.79 (95% confidence interval=0.49-1.28, p=0.342). These findings were consistent with other outcomes and supplementary analyses.

CONCLUSION: In locally advanced-stage lung cancer patients who received definitive radiotherapy, survival did not significantly differ between those treated with RCRT and those treated without RCRT. To our knowledge, this is the first population-based study on this topic.