Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Neoadjuvant or perioperative treatment, including an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI), has emerged as a new standard for patients with resectable stage III NSCLC. Nevertheless, approximately 20% of patients who start neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy will not undergo definitive surgery. Little is known about these patients. METHODS: We analyzed outcomes of patients without definitive surgery from five Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research (SAKK) trials that investigated different neoadjuvant treatment modalities in patients with resectable stage III-N2 NSCLC. Study treatment included neoadjuvant cisplatin-docetaxel chemotherapy (with or without radiotherapy), either combined with peri-operative durvalumab in the SAKK 16/14 trial (n = 68) or without an ICI (non-ICI trials, n = 431). RESULTS: Of the 499 patients, 102 (20%) did not have definitive surgery. Cancellation of surgery occurred in a similar proportion of patients with or without neoadjuvant ICI (19% versus 21%, p = 0.9). Reasons were in non-ICI trials and SAKK 16/14: disease progression (47% and 54%), nonresectability (18% and 8%), medical reasons (17% and 31%), and unknown (18% and 8%), respectively. Of these patients, no patient in SAKK 16/14 and 17 patients (19%) in the non-ICI trials received curative-intended salvage therapy. Three-year overall survival was higher in patients who had definitive surgery compared with those who did not: 78% versus 32% (SAKK 16/14) and 54% versus 10% (non-ICI trials). CONCLUSIONS: In our pooled analysis, patients with definitive surgery had higher survival rates than those without definitive surgery. Prognosis in patients without definitive surgery seems to have improved in the era of ICI.