Prognostic factors in clinical stage I non-small cell lung cancer.
BACKGROUND
Management of patients with early-stage lung cancer but a poor prognosis is controversial.


METHODS
Between January 1987 and December 1994, 365 patients with clinical stage I disease underwent surgical resection at our hospital. Eight preoperative clinical variables were entered into univariate and multivariate analyses to determine their impacts on 5-year survival.


RESULTS
The 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 78.1% and 66.5%, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, clinical T2 status and preoperative high serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels were independent significant factors indicative of a poor prognosis (hazard ratio, 2.20 and 1.88, respectively). Patients with both of these factors had 3-year and 5-year survival rates of 65% and 38% (p<0.001), and the risk of death for this subgroup was 4.14 times greater than that of the overall clinical stage I population.


CONCLUSIONS
A subgroup with clinical T2 disease and preoperative high serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels had a significantly poorer prognosis among patients with clinical stage I lung cancer. For this subgroup, a complete preoperative staging workup and multimodal therapy, especially induction chemotherapy, instead of surgical intervention alone could be beneficial.
D000368:Aged; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D015996:Survival Rate