BACKGROUNDTo investigate whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy (MVP) could influence the safety of perioperative patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODSThe regimen of chemotherapy was MVP (mitomycin+vindesine+cisplatin) for all patients. The patients undergoing 2 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, radical resection and 2 cycles of postoperative chemotherapy were compared with those undergoing similar resections and 4 cycles of similar postoperative chemotherapy.

RESULTSOf the 107 eligible patients, 66 patients were in the neoadjuvant-chemotherapy group and 41 in control group. There was no statistical difference between these two groups in the distributions of gender, age, tumor staging and pathology. The neoadjuvant-chemotherapy group had longer operative duration (P=0.262), more operative blood loss (P=0.704), more amount of operative transfusion (P=0.811) and total amount of perioperative transfusion (P=0.074), and less amount of post-operative drainage (P=0.061) than those of the control group, but no statistical difference was found among them. No statistical difference was detected between two groups in the mortality (P=0.674) and the morbidity such as arrhythmia (P=0.608), bronchial parietal fistula (P= 0.378 ), pneumonia (P=0.622) and respiratory failure (P=0.285).

CONCLUSIONSNeoadjuvant chemotherapy does not exert significant influence on the safety of perioperative patients with NSCLC.