Surgery and subsequent risk of non-small cell lung cancer recurrence: a meta-analysis of observational studies

BACKGROUND: Surgery is the main treatment for stage I, II, and IIIA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the relationship between surgery and NSCLC recurrence is unclear. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to determine whether surgery is associated with an increased risk of NSCLC recurrence. METHODS: We used the electronic databases in PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and MEDLINE to carry out a systematic literature search before December 1st, 2017. All studies on the association between surgery and subsequent risk of NSCLC recurrence were included and then analyzed using RevMan 5.3. RESULTS: Eleven studies were included in the meta-analysis involving 3,190 patients. The relationship between surgery and NSCLC recurrence was evaluated by pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The results suggested that surgery does not increase the risk of NSCLC recurrence (OR =0.42, 95% CI, 0.25–0.72, P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that surgery decreased the risk of NSCLC recurrence in stage I−IV.