Efficacy and tolerance of palliative accelerated radiation therapy combined with chemotherapy in inoperable non-small cell lung cancer patients - retrospective analysis

Background. In patients with advanced NSCLC radiotherapy reduces suffering, although there are indications in the literature that it has no influence on long-time survival. Nonetheless, some papers report that the influence of radiotherapy and accelerated radiotherapy on survival is significant. In this study the overall survival and progression-free survival time and the influence of several clinical factors on the outcome were assessed. Material and methods. 690 patients scheduled for accelerated radiotherapy from September 1997 to December 2002 were investigated. The survival probability was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier method. Prognostic factors were analysed with Cox's proportional hazard model. Results. Two-year and five-year survivals ± standard error were 0.21±0.015 and 0.12±0.014. Two-year and five-year progression-free survivals were 0.16±0.014 and 0.09±0.013. No statistically significant influence of any clinical factor was found. Conclusions. Accelerated radiotherapy is justified as a standard therapy for patients with advanced NSCLC. (author)