Contemporary real-world radiotherapy outcomes of unresected locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer

BACKGROUND: Radiotherapy (RT) is used as monotherapy in poor performance patients with unresected locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC), but their outcomes are not well-described. As novel therapies are increasingly considered in this space, it is important to understand contemporary outcomes of RT alone. Here, in this retrospective cohort study we analyzed LA-NSCLC outcomes of RT alone in Ontario, Canada, and contrasted them against those of standard of care (SoC) treatment of concurrent chemo-radiotherapy (cCRT). METHODS: Ontario provincial databases were searched through the Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences (IC/ES) for stage III NSCLC patients diagnosed between 2007 and 2017. Surgical patients were excluded, and all patients that received RT without or with chemotherapy were selected. Patients were divided in groups of RT dose received (<40 Gy, 40–55.9 Gy, and ≥56 Gy) and whether they underwent diagnostic (18)F-deoxy-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET). RESULTS: Five thousand five hundred and seventy-seven stage III patients that received chest RT without surgery between January 2007 and March 2017 were included in this analysis. Within this group, 39.8% (2,225) received RT alone, 47.4% (2,645) cCRT and 12.6% (707) received sequential chemo-radiotherapy (sCRT). Median OS with RT alone in three dose groups <40/40–55.9/≥56 Gy was 7.2, 8.5 and 13.3 months compared to 16.5, 15.8 and 22 months for cCRT patients. Higher RT dose and PET utilization were independently associated with improved survival in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Radiation monotherapy remains a widely used treatment modality in LA-NSCLC. RT dose and utilization of FDG-PET imaging are associated with improved survival in this group. These findings help improve clinical decision making and serve as basis for future trials.