Differential outcomes of residual disease in surgically-resected non-small cell lung cancer and the importance of guideline-concordant adjuvant therapy

BACKGROUND: Positive mediastinal lymph nodes, a marker for systemic disease, and positive margins, a marker for local disease, following resection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are forms of residual disease. The objective of this study is to compare survival of patients with residual disease and to study the effect of receipt of guideline vs. non-guideline concordant care. METHODS: The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was used to identify patients who underwent treatment naïve surgical resection with clinical stage T1-3N0-1M0 NSCLC between 2006–2016 and had pN2 disease, positive surgical margins, or both. Concordant care was determined based on form of chemotherapy and radiation, dosage, volume, modality, and duration. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank tests were used to compare five-year survival. Multivariable analysis using Cox proportional hazards modeling identified factors that contributed to worse overall survival. RESULTS: There were 8,189 patients included: pN2 (5,416), positive margins (2,386), and both (387). Five-year survival rates for all patients were pN2 (35.8%), positive margins (33.9%), and both (22.9%) (P<0.0001). On multivariable analysis, positive margins were an independent predictor of better survival relative to pN2 disease (HR =0.729, CI: 0.676, 0.787, P<0.0001). Receipt of non-guideline concordant treatment was an independent predictor of worse survival compared to receipt of guideline-concordant treatment (HR =1.61, CI: 1.504, 1.725, P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In upfront surgical patients, guideline-concordant treatment in the setting of residual disease is associated with better overall survival compared with non-guideline concordant treatment. Pathologic N2 disease is associated with a lower survival rate than positive resection margins, possibly reflecting the systemic nature of pN2 disease.