THORACIC SURGERY
Completion pneumonectomy and chemoradiotherapy as treatment options in local recurrence of non-small-cell lung cancer

Introduction: The selection of treatment for local recurrence in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) depends on the possibility of performing a radical tumor resection, the patient’s performance status, and cardiopulmonary efficiency. Compared with chemoradiotherapy, surgical treatment offers a greater chance of long-term survival, but results in completion pneumonectomy and is associated with a relatively high rate of complications.

Aim of the study was to evaluate early and long-term results of surgery and conservative treatment (chemoradiotherapy) in patients with local NSCLC recurrence.

Material and methods: Between 1998 and 2011, 1697 NSCLC patients underwent lobectomy or bilobectomy at the Department of Thoracic Surgery in Poznań. Among them, 137 patients (8.1%) were diagnosed with cancer recurrence; chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy was provided to 116 patients; 21 patients (15.3%) were treated with completion pneumonectomy. The median time from primary surgery to recurrence was 13.4 months. No metastases to N2 lymph nodes were observed among the patients undergoing surgery; in 7 patients N1 lymph node metastases were confirmed.

Results: The rate of complications after surgery was significantly higher in comparison with conservative therapy (80.9% vs. 48.3%). Patients treated with surgery were most likely to suffer from complications associated with the circulatory system (80.9%), while hematologic complications were dominant in the group undergoing oncological treatment (41.4%). There were no perioperative deaths after completion pneumonectomy. The age of the patients was the only factor which significantly influenced the incidence of complications in both groups of patients. Analysis of the survival curves demonstrated statistically significant differences in survival between the groups treated with surgery, chemoradiotherapy, and chemotherapy (p = 0.00001). Five-year survival probability was significantly higher among patients treated surgically as compared to patients undergoing systemic therapy.

Conclusions: Despite the significant rate of postoperative complications (mostly circulatory), the long-term results of the surgical treatment of local NSCLC recurrence are more favorable than those achieved with chemoradiotherapy. The success of surgical treatment is conditioned on the exclusion of metastasis in N2 lymph nodes.