Is prior cancer history a hindrance for non-small cell lung cancer patients to participate in clinical trials?

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to explore the effect of a prior cancer history on the survivals of resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. METHODS: Kaplan–Meier method with a log-rank test was used to compare overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) between groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to reduce bias. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO)-penalized Cox multivariable analysis was used to identify the prognostic factors. RESULTS: A total of 4,102 eligible cases were included in this study. The rate of patients with a prior cancer was 8.2% (338/4,102). Patients with a prior cancer tended to be younger and have early-stage tumors when compared with those without prior cancer. Before PSM, the survivals of the patients with a prior cancer were similar to those of the patients without prior cancer (OS: P = 0.591; DFS: P = 0.847). After PSM, patients with a prior cancer and those without prior cancer still had comparable survival rates (OS: P = 0.126; DFS: P = 0.054). The LASSO-penalized multivariable Cox analysis further confirmed that a prior cancer history was not a prognostic factor for both OS and DFS. CONCLUSIONS: A prior cancer history was not associated with resected NSCLC patients’ survivals, and we proposed that it might be reasonable for clinical trials to enroll the NSCLC patients with a prior cancer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-023-10551-9.