Effects of lobectomy in stage II/IIIA second primary lung cancer patients with prior non-small cell lung cancer: a SEER-based study.

OBJECTIVE

Our study aimed to reveal the prognostic factors of second primary lung cancer and explore the optimal surgical procedure for Stage II/IIIA second primary lung cancer patients with prior non-small cell lung cancer.

METHODS

Patients with Stage II/IIIA second primary lung cancer were collected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database from 2004 to 2016. Lasso regression, along with univariate and multivariate Cox regression, was used to screen prognostic factors. The propensity score matching was used to minimize baseline differences, and restricted mean survival time was used to compare overall survival and cancer-specific survival of different groups.

RESULTS

A total of 579 patients were enrolled in the study. After data was screened by lasso regression and univariate Cox regression, multivariate Cox regression revealed that age, sex, race, tumor size of initial primary lung cancer, tumor size, histological grade, T stage, N stage and surgical procedure of second primary lung cancer were independent prognostic factors. Further analysis showed that surgery, especially lobectomy, provided better survival in Stage II/IIIA second primary lung cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study identified nine independent prognostic factors of Stage II/IIIA second primary lung cancer. Surgery can provide a better prognosis, and lobectomy might be the optimal surgical procedure for these patients.