Long-Term Survival Data of Patients With Limited-Disease Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Background. Long-term survival data of patients with limited-disease small-cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC) treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) have not been fully evaluated. Furthermore, the association between long-term prognosis and prognostic factors has not been sufficiently investigated.Methods. The efficacy of concurrent CRT was retrospectively evaluated in 120 patients with LD-SCLC who were planned for curative CRT using concurrent accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy.Results. The median patient age was 65.5 years. The majority of patients were males (73%) and had clinical stage III disease (80%). The median follow-up time for overall survival (OS) was 71.3 months. The median OS was 34.3 months; the 3- and 5-year OS rates were 52.4% and 41.8%, respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) was 12.2 months; the 3- and 5-year PFS rates were 37.6% and 33.6%, respectively. The 5-year OS rates of patients who achieved PFS at 12, 24, and 36 months were 70.9%, 83.6%, and 91.9%, respectively. The gradual increase in the 5-year OS rate following PFS extension and initial depression of Kaplan–Meier curves showed that disease progression frequently occurred in the first 2 years after concurrent CRT initiation. The Cox proportional hazards model revealed no significant factors that correlated with long-term survival through univariate and multivariate analyses.Conclusions. Prognostic factors associated with long-term prognosis in LD-SCLC were not identified. Nonetheless, the 5-year OS rate was 41.8%, whereas the 5-year survival rate among patients without disease progression at 2 years was 83.6%. These data suggest that the prognosis of patients with LD-SCLC was improving.