Compliance with Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Completely Resected Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.
- Author:
Hyun Sung LEE
1
;
Moon Soo KIM
;
Jong Mog LEE
;
Heung Tae KIM
;
Bo Ryong HWANG
;
Dong Seok HAN
;
Hyun Kyong AHN
;
Jae Ill ZO
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: Non-small cell lung carcinoma; Surgery; Adjuvant chemotherapy; Treatment compliance
- MeSH: Aged; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung*; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant*; Compliance*; Disulfiram; Drug Therapy; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Lung Neoplasms; Male; Mortality; Multivariate Analysis; Neoplasm Metastasis; Pneumonia; Postoperative Complications; Sepsis
- From:Journal of Lung Cancer 2007;6(2):78-84
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
- Abstract: PURPOSE : To evaluate the compliance of patients who underwent complete resection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with adjuvant chemotherapy. MATERIALS AND METHODS : Between January 2004 and May 2006, patients who underwent a complete resection for NSCLC were referred to oncologists for adjuvant chemotherapy. Three or 4 cycles of platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy was then performed according to the protocol or the preference of the oncologists. RESULTS : Two hundred and thirty-two patients were enrolled in this study. The median age of the study group was 60.9 years and 76.7 % of the patients enrolled were male. 34.9%, 28.8% and 36.2% of the patients were in stage IB, II and III respectively. In addition, 142 of the patients (61.2%) completed all planned cycles, whereas 65 patients (28%) received no therapy. The causes of start failure for adjuvant chemotherapy consisted of decreased postoperative performance status (n=39), refusal (n=13) and distant metastasis at the initial follow-up (n=2). The causes of cessation during adjuvant chemotherapy included the occurrence of severe adverse effects (n=12), aggravation of the disease with newly developed metastasis (n=4) and others (n=6). The mortality related to the adjuvant chemotherapy was 1.3 % (n=3), all of the fatalities were due to pneumonia and sepsis. Univariate analysis showed that age, postoperative complications and pathologic staging were the significant factors that determined whether the adjuvant chemotherapy was completed. Multivariate analysis demonstrated statistically significant differences in compliance when age and pathologic staging were considered. CONCLUSION : Adjuvant chemotherapy for completely resected NSCLC was performed with satisfactory compliance in approximately 60% of the patients included in this study, and age plays an important role in the compliance of adjuvant chemotherapy. Elderly subsets will be examined to help determine the effect of age on compliance and outcome. In addition, the medical oncologist tended to complete the adjuvant chemotherapy for more advanced cases of lung cancer than for stage IB lung cancer
