Objectives: The present study was performed to evaluate the differences in clinical characteristics and survival outcomes of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) according to methods used for detecting the disease: radiographic screening or symptomatically prompted.
Materials and methods: The clinical findings and actual treatment outcomes were estimated according to three means of detection of SCLC: computed tomography (CT), radiographic test, and symptom-prompted cases.
Results: We identified 147 patients (male/female ratio: 127/20; mean age: 68.1 years old) between 2000 and 2011. The patients were divided into three categories according to method of detection: chest CT (CT; n=24), radiographic screening (CXR; n=37), and symptom-prompted cases (symptom; n=86). There was no significant shift to early TNM stage distribution in the CT or CXR group compared with the symptom group. However, the rates of limited disease (LD)-SCLC were significantly higher in the CT and CXR groups than the symptom group. Median survival times were 17.0 months (95% confidence interval (CI): 11.6-22.4) in the CT group, 19.0 months (95%CI: 11.7-126.3) in the CXR group, and 12.0 months (95%CI: 9.6-14.4) in the symptom group. There were statistically significant differences in overall survival between CT and symptom groups (P<0.05) and between CXR and symptom groups (P<0.001). However, there was no significant difference in survival between CT and CXR groups.
Conclusions: Radiographic (CT plus CXR) testing contributes to better clinical outcome in patients with SCLC.
Keywords: CT screening; Health screening; Lung cancer; Prognosis; Radiographic survey; SCLC.
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