Abstract
BACKGROUND: There are various therapeutic methods for treating stage IA (T1N0M0) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but no studies have systematically assessed multiple treatments to determine the most effective therapy. METHODS: Stage IA NSCLC patient data collected between 2004 and 2018 were gathered from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Treatment modalities included observation, chemotherapy alone (CA), radiation alone (RA), radiation+chemotherapy (RC), surgery alone (SA), surgery+chemotherapy (SC), surgery+radiation (SR) and surgery+radiation+chemotherapy (SRC). Comparisons were made of overall survival (OS) and lung cancer-specific survival (LCSS) among patients based on different therapeutic methods by survival analysis. RESULTS: Ultimately, 89147 patients with stage IA NSCLC between 2004 and 2018 were enrolled in this study. The order of multiple treatment modalities based on the hazard ratio (HR) for OS for the entire cohort revealed the following results: SA (HR: 0.20), SC (HR: 0.25), SR (HR: 0.42), SRC (HR: 0.46), RA (HR: 0.56), RC (HR: 0.72), CA (HR: 0.91) (P<0.001), and observation (HR: Ref). The SA group had the best OS and LCSS, and similar results were found in most subgroup analyses (all P<0.001). The order of surgical modalities based on the HR for OS for the entire cohort revealed the following results: lobectomy (HR: 0.32), segmentectomy (HR: 0.41), wedge resection (HR: 0.52) and local tumor destruction (HR: Ref). Lobectomy had the best effects on OS and LCSS, and similar results were found in all subgroup analyses (all P<0.001). CONCLUSION: SA appeared to be the optimal treatment modality for patients with stage IA NSCLC, and lobectomy was associated with the best prognosis. There may be some indication and selection bias in our study, and the results of this study should be confirmed in a prospective study.