Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 2, 2025

Endobronchial Ultrasound-guided Intratumoral Injection of Cisplatin for the Treatment of Isolated Mediastinal Recurrence of Lung Cancer
Published on: February 12, 2017
Early versus Delayed Tumor-Specific Therapy and Survival in Patients with Lung Cancer: A Retrospective Study
Rike Geiken-Weinstock1, Anna K L Reyners2, Frank Griesinger1,3
1European Medical School Oldenburg-Groningen, Faculty VI, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Introduction:
The timing of tumor-specific palliative therapy and its influence on the survival of patients with stage IV lung cancer remain unclear.
Methods:
375 patients with stage IV lung cancer who experienced an early or delayed therapy (early or delayed therapy group [TG]) were investigated using histology and ECOG performance score (ECOG-PS)-related subgroups. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used for survival analyses.
Results:
Patients in the early TG had a significantly shorter median overall survival (OS) than those in the delayed TG (6 vs. 11 months). Patients with an ECOG-PS of ≥1 were significantly more present in the early TG than in the delayed TG (66.8 vs. 51.9%). But an early therapy was also significantly associated to a shorter median OS in ECOG-matched subgroups (ECOG-PS of 0, 7 vs. 23 months; ECOG ≥1, 6 vs. 8 months). An early therapy was associated to a significantly worse median OS in histological subgroups (NSCLC, 5 vs. 11 months; SCLC, 7 vs. 11 months) and was an independent risk factor in uni- and multivariate analyses.
Conclusions:
An early initiation of cancer-specific therapy was associated with a shorter survival time in palliative lung cancer patients, independent of the ECOG-PS and histological subtype.
Related Concept Videos
Targeted Cancer Therapies
There are several types of targeted therapies against...
Combination Therapies and Personalized Medicine
The combination of the drug acetazolamide and sulforaphane is a good example of combination therapy to treat cancer. The cells in the interior of a large tumor often die due to the hypoxic and...
Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...
Cancer Survival Analysis
Tumor Immunotherapy

