RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATION OF 251 NON-SMALL CELL LUNG CANCER PATIENTS TREATED BY RADICAL RADIOTHERAPY

Two hundred and fifty one patients of non small cell lung carcinoma who have been treated between January 1990-May 1995 in our department were evaluated retrospectively. Of these cases 98.0% were male, 2.0% were female, mean age was 57 (25-82) and 23.5% were at stage IIIA whereas 76.5% were staged as 1MB. Radiotherapy WAS delivered by the portals covering primary tumor and mediastinum with 2 Gy daily fractions to a total dose of 50 Gy in 69 patients and 60 Gy in 182 patients. Median survival of the whole group was 13 months and the survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 56.1%, 9.2% and 4.3% respectively. In univariate analyses those factors WERE found to be effective on overall survival; radiation dose (in favour of 60 Gy, P=0.017), response to radiotherapy (in favour of complete response, P<0.001), tumor localization (in favour of upper lobes, P=0.026), age (in favour of under 65, P=0.041), nodal stage (in-favour of NO-1, P=0.055) and postirradiation chemotherapy (P=0.020). In multivariate analyses; radiation dose (P=0.028), response to radiotherapy (P=0.047), post irradiation chemotherapy (P=0.052) and tumor localization (P=0.057) were found to be effective on overall survival. The rate of grade III-IV complications were 7.2% and there WAS no treatment releated deaths. It is concluded that the patients should be treated with conventional dose-fractionation schemes until the development of new treatment models where long term survival advantage is established in randomized studies.