2Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.26663/cts.2016.0003 Viewed : 4102 - Downloaded : 2237 Background: Tumor size is one of the major prognostic determinants of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In the present study, we evaluated the effect of tumor size on survival in pN0M0 NSCLC patients.
Materials and Methods: Between 1994 and 2013, 1975 NSCLC patients underwent surgery in our center. The study included 774 NSCLC patients with pathological stage N0M0, and these patients were divided into 8 groups according to tumor diameter, as follows, Group 1: 0-10 mm, Group 2: 11-20 mm, Group 3: 21-30 mm, Group 4: 31-40 mm, Group 5: 41-50 mm, Group 6: 51-60 mm, Group 7: 61-70 mm, and Group 8: > 70 mm. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic effect of tumor size on overall survival and to determine a cut-off point for tumor size.
Results: The 5 year overall survival rate for groups 1 to 8 were 85.6%, 81.3%, 68.6%, 62.2%, 55%, 54.2%, 54.3%, and 45.6%, respectively. The mean follow-up time was 43.8 months. In multivariate analysis, age, tumor size, and surgical resection type had an independent prognostic value on survival.
Conclusions: Tumor size is an independent prognostic factor for pN0M0 NSCLC patients. A tumor size of 4 cm was found to be the most suitable cut-off point for survival which may be of help in decision-making for adjuvant chemotherapy.
Keywords : Non-small cell lung cancer; tumor size; survival