Chemoradiation Therapy Followed by Surgery in the Treatment of Locoregionally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Background The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of surgery after two induction cycles of cisplatin-docetaxel followed by concomitant 40Gy chemoradiation in the treatment of initially unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC; TAXCIS protocol), and to evaluate overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) and recurrence risk factors over a larger cohort of patients with a subgroup analysis of patients treated by pneumonectomy. Methods Between 2004 and 2014, a total of 37 patients were treated. Only patients responding to induction treatment were included. Results We operated on 32 stage IIIA and 5 stage IIIB patients. We performed 12 pneumonectomies, 1 bilobectomy, and 23 lobectomies. Status ypT0N0 was obtained for 35% of the patients. Surgery was considered R0 in 86% of the cases. Postoperative morbidity was 21.6% with a mortality of 10.8% (25% after pneumonectomy). OS was 50% at 5 years. The median RFS was 50 months. RFS was 47% at 5 years. Local or locoregional recurrence was diagnosed in 10.8% of the patients, and distant metastasis in 35.1%. Recurrence risk factors were pneumonectomy ( p =0.001) and a histologically incomplete response ( p =0.04). Conclusion The TAXCIS protocol followed by surgery is feasible for initially unresectable NSCLC stage IIIA and B patients. Benefit was noted in responding lesions with better OS and PFS, except after pneumonectomy.