Surgical Outcomes of Synchronous Multiple Primary Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers

The prognostic indicators for synchronous multiple primary non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) vary across reports. In present study, the prognostic factors for the patients with synchronous multiple primary NSCLC were analyzed in a large cohort. A total of 285 patients with synchronous multiple primary NSCLC who underwent radical surgical resection and with complete follow-up information were included in this study. The Kaplan-Meier method were used for survival analysis, Cox proportional hazards regression models were used for risk factors evaluation. Among them, 94 (33.0%) patients had bilateral tumors and 51 (17.9%) had multiple (≥3) tumors. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rate was 58.7% and 77.6%, respectively. Univariate analysis identified parameters conferring shorter OS including male gender, symptomatic disease, negative family history, large maximal tumor size, not all adenocarcinomas, advanced highest T stage, and lymph node involvement. Multivariate analysis showed that male gender (p = 0.020), symptomatic disease (p = 0.017), and lymph node involvement (p < 0.001) were independent adverse prognosticators. For patients with multiple adenocarcinomas, the 5-year DFS and OS rate was 59.6% and 82.4%, respectively. The subtypes other than lepidic predominant (p < 0.001) and lymph node involvement (p = 0.002) were the independent unfavorable prognosticators. In conclusion, we identified independent prognosticators which will provide the valuable clues for postoperative management of patients with synchronous multiple primary NSCLC.