Post-Progression Survival Is Strongly Associated with Overall Survival in Patients Exhibiting Postoperative Relapse of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Harboring Sensitizing Mutations.

: Patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring sensitizing epidermal growth factor receptor () mutations show a good response to EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs). The subsequent treatments influence the evaluability of the efficacy of front-line therapy on overall survival (OS). Consequently, we evaluated the associations of relapse-free survival (RFS) and post-progression survival (PPS) with OS in patients who exhibited postoperative relapse of -mutated NSCLC. : We analyzed the data of 35 patients with -mutated NSCLC who underwent complete resection between January 2007 and June 2019. The correlations of RFS and PPS with OS were evaluated at the individual patient level. Linear regression and Spearman's rank correlation analyses demonstrated that the PPS highly correlated with OS ( = 0.91, < 0.05, = 0.85), whereas the RFS weakly associated with OS ( = 0.36, < 0.05, = 0.25). Age and performance status at relapse were significantly associated with PPS. : Overall, PPS was more strongly and significantly associated with OS than RFS. These results suggest that the OS of our cohort may be affected by treatments, besides postoperative relapse. However, larger-scale prospective studies are needed to confirm these results.