A randomized phase III trial of adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT for completely resected pathological stage I non-small-cell lung cancer: the West Japan Study Group for Lung Cancer Surgery (WJS']JSG) - the 4th study

Purpose: To examine the efficacy of UFT, an oral 5-fluorouracil derivative agent. as post-operative adjuvant therapy for pathologic (p-) stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), because a previous randomized study had suggested it was efficacious for early-stage NSCLC patients. Patients and methods: Patients with completely resected p-stage I. adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma were eligible. A total of 332 patients were randomized to the Surgery-alone group (control group) and the treatment group (UFT 400mg/m(2) for 1 year after surgery, UFT group) after stratification by the histologic types. Results: For all patients, the 5- and 8-year survival rates for the UFT group were 82.2% and 73.0%, and those for the control group were 75.9% and 61.2%. respectively; no statistically significant improvement of survival was achieved by UFT administration (P = 0.105). For Ad patients, the 5- and 8-year survival rates of the UFT group (in = 120) were 85.2% and 79.5%. respectively. which seemed better than those of the control group (in = 121) (79.2% and 64.0%, respectively: P = 0.081). For squarrious cell carcinoma patients. there was also no difference in survival between the control group (it = 48) and the UFT group (n = 43) (P = 0.762). For all pT1 patients, the 5- and S-year Survival rates of the UFT group were 83.6% and 82.1%. respectively, significantly better than those of the control group (77.9% and 57.6%, respectively, P=0.036); UFT was not significantly effective for pT2 patients. For pT1 adenocarcinoma patients. UFT administration markedly improved the survival (P = 0.011). Conclusion: Post-operative UFT administration did not significantly improve post-operative survival of p-stage I NSCLC patients. Subset analyses suggested that UFT might be effective in pT1N0M0 adenocarcinoma patients.