Treatment Patterns and Survival Outcomes in Patients With Stage T1-2N0M0 Small Cell Lung Cancer Undergoing Surgery: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: The aim of the study was to delineate the treatment modalities and survival outcomes in patients with stage T1-2N0M0 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) who underwent surgery. Methods: SCLC patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results databases between 2000 and 2020 were investigated. Ka-plan-Meier survival analysis was employed to assess cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) across diverse therapeutic strategies. Results: The study included 190 patients. Treatment modalities in-cluded surgery alone in 65 patients (34.2%), surgery + chemother-apy in 70 patients (36.8%), surgery + radiotherapy in three patients (1.6%), and surgery + chemoradiotherapy in 52 patients (27.4%). The median CSS remained undetermined for the surgery alone group, whereas it was 123 and 113 months for the surgery + chemotherapy and surgery + chemoradiotherapy groups. Median OS was 47, 84, and 50 months for these groups. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that patients receiving surgery + chemotherapy exhibited a significantly enhanced OS (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.38 -0.94; P = 0.028) compared to those undergoing surgery alone. However, the integration of radiotherapy did not im-prove OS compared to surgery alone (HR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.44 -1.15; P = 0.170). Conclusion: Adjuvant chemotherapy improved OS compared to sur-gery alone. However, the addition of radiotherapy did not prolong OS.