Aim: Our analysis was performed to assess the efficacy of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) on the survival for pathologic IIIA-N2 Non-small-cell lung cancer patients.
Patients & methods: We identified 2949 patients from 2004 to 2013 in the SEER database. Propensity score-matching was used to reduce the selection bias. Overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and the factors associated with survival prognosis were evaluated.
Results: There was no significant difference in OS and CSS between PORT and non-PORT groups. However, subgroup analysis revealed an OS (p = 0.007) and CSS (p = 0.006) detrimental for male patients not receiving PORT. Multivariate analysis showed that old age, male sex, high pathologic grade, squamous carcinoma, bigger tumor size and larger number of positive lymph nodes had a negative impact on survival.
Conclusion: PORT could improve OS and CSS in male patients with resected IIIA-N2 non-small-cell lung cancer.
Keywords: NSCLC; PORT; SEER; Stage IIIA-N2; survival.