Surgery for stage IIB–IIIB small cell lung cancer

PURPOSE: The NCCN guidelines do not recommend surgery for T3–4N0M0/T1–4N1–2M0 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) due to a lack of evidence. METHODS: Data of patients with T3–4N0M0/T1–4N1–2M0 SCLC were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to determine the impact of surgery on this population. The Kaplan–Meier method, univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression, and propensity score matching (PSM) were used to compare the overall survival (OS) between the surgery and non-surgery groups. In addition, we explored whether sublobectomy, lobectomy, and pneumonectomy could provide survival benefits. RESULTS: In total, 8572 patients with SCLC treated without surgery and 342 patients treated with surgery were included in this study. The PSM-adjusted hazard ratio (HR, 95% CI) for surgery vs. no surgery, sublobectomy vs. no surgery, lobectomy vs. no surgery, pneumonectomy vs. no surgery, and lobectomy plus adjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs. chemoradiotherapy were 0.71 (0.61–0.82) (P < 0.001), 0.91 (0.70–1.19) (P = 0.488), 0.60 (0.50–0.73) (P < 0.001), 0.57 (0.28–1.16) (P = 0.124), and 0.73 (0.56–0.96) (P = 0.023), respectively. The subgroup analysis demonstrated consistent results. CONCLUSIONS: Lobectomy improved OS in patients with T3–4N0M0/T1–4N1–2M0 SCLC, while pneumonectomy also demonstrated a tendency to improve OS without statistical significance; however, sublobectomy showed no survival benefit. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12957-023-03196-2.