Background: Although preoperative immunotherapy (IT) is increasingly utilized for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), there remains a paucity of robust clinical data on its safety and long-term survival. Our objective was to evaluate the perioperative outcomes and survival associated with IT followed by surgery for patients with NSCLC.
Methods: Outcomes of patients with NSCLC who underwent lung resection after preoperative chemotherapy (PC)±radiation or IT (with or without chemotherapy or chemoradiation) in the National Cancer Data Base (2010-2017) were evaluated using Kaplan Meier analysis, multivariable logistic regression, multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis, and propensity score-matched analysis.
Results: From 2010-2017, 236 patients (2.2%) received IT and 10,715 patients received PC followed by surgery. There were no significant differences between the IT and PC groups with regard to margin positivity (8.5%[n=20] vs 7.5%[n=715], P=0.98), 30-day readmission (4.2%[n=10] vs 4.1%[n=440], P=0.87), and 30-day mortality (0.4%[n=1] vs 2.4%[n=253], P=0.25). The IT and PC groups had similar overall survival (5-year survival: 63% [95% CI, 50-74] vs 51% [95% CI, 50-52]; log-rank P=0.06; multivariable adjusted hazard ratio 0.98 [95% CI, 0.67-1.41], P=0.90). A propensity score-matched analysis of 344 patients, well-matched by preoperative characteristics, showed no significant differences in short-term outcomes and overall survival (log-rank P=1.00) between the two groups.
Conclusions: In this national analysis, preoperative immunotherapy followed by surgery for NSCLC was found to be safe and feasible with similar short-term outcomes and overall survival when compared to preoperative chemotherapy followed by surgery.
