Real world practice of postoperative radiotherapy for patients with completely resected pIIIA-N2 non-small cell lung cancer: a national survey of radiation oncologists in China

BACKGROUND: Results from Lung ART and PORT-C trials suggest that postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) cannot routinely be recommended as standard treatment in completely resected pIIIA-N2 NSCLC patients, but their effects on the real-world practice of PORT in China remain unclear. METHODS: A national cross-section survey was conducted by using an online survey service. Participants were voluntarily recruited using a river sampling strategy. A link to the survey was posted on websites of radiation oncologist associations and tweets from public WeChat accounts. The survey collected the real names of participants to ensure that they were board-certified radiation oncologists. RESULTS: A total of 484 radiation oncologists were included with a median age of 40 years (IQR, 35–47). A total of 377 (77.9%) participants were male, and 282 (58.1%) had more than 10 years of clinical experience practicing thoracic radiotherapy. Before Lung ART and PORT-C trials were published, 313 (64.7%) respondents recommended PORT, 11 (2.3%) did not recommend it, and 160 (33.1%) reported that they made decisions based on risk factors. After the presentation of two trials, only 42 (8.7%) did not recommend PORT, while 108 (22.3%) recommended it, and 334 (69.0%) made decisions based on risk factors. The five most commonly considered risk factors among these 334 respondents were as follows: nodal extracapsular extension, the highest lymph node (LN) station involved, the number of dissected mediastinal LN stations, the number of positive mediastinal LN stations, and surgical approaches. In addition, the majority of all 484 respondents recommended a total dose of 50 Gy, lung stump + ipsilateral hilus + regions containing positive LNs as the targeted region, lung V20 < 25%, and heart V30 < 40% as dose constraints for PORT. CONCLUSION: Most Chinese radiation oncologists recommended PORT for completely resected IIIA-N2 NSCLC patients based on risk factors, especially status of LN station. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13014-023-02208-5.