Meta-Analysis of Rates and Risk Factors for Local Recurrence in Surgically Resected Patients With NSCLC and...

Postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) reduces local failure in patients with NSCLC, without a clear overall survival benefit. It is unknown whether the subsets of patients benefit. Two recent large randomized controlled trials, PORT-C (People's Republic of China) and Lung ART (Europe), reported widely different locoregional recurrence (LR) rates in the control arms, at 18.3% and 28.1% (46% of which were mediastinal recurrences), respectively. We performed a meta-analysis of patients with pathologic (p) N0 to N2 disease to evaluate the risk factors for LR and to explore possible differences in recurrence risk between Asian population (AP) and non-Asian population (NAP).

We identified all original studies of curative NSCLC surgical resection which reported risk of LR between January 1, 2000, and January 10, 2021, excluding studies with less than 10 LR, patients with metastatic disease, or any neoadjuvant therapy. A total of 87 studies were identified with pN0 to N2 disease; of these, 56 were of high quality (HQ) on the basis of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. For each risk factor, we derived pooled relative risk (RR) and 5-year rate estimates using random-effects models.

Overall, the three significant highest pooled RRs (95% confidence intervals) for LR were pN2 versus pN0 (3.01, 1.39-6.55), lymphovascular invasion (1.92, 1.58-2.33), and advanced pT3-4 stage versus pT1 (1.86, 1.53-2.25). For HQ studies, the highest RRs for LR were lymphovascular invasion (1.94, 1.57-2.40), sublobar versus lobar resection (1.86, 1.46-2.36), and pN1 versus pN0 (1.84, 1.37-2.47), but pN2 versus pN0 was no longer significant (3.0, 0.57-15.61), on the basis of only two eligible studies. The RRs for LR were consistent for most factors in AP and NAP, although the RR for male versus female sex was higher in AP (1.44, 1.21-1.72) than in NAP (1.09, 0.99-1.19). Where reported, the pooled rate of LR at 5 years was lower in AP (12.0%) than in NAP (22.7%), despite similar overall 5-year recurrence rates (both LR and distal) in both populations: 38.0% in AP and 37.3% in NAP. Nevertheless, a lower 5-year mortality rate was noted in AP (24.3%) than in NAP (45.9%).

There is little high-quality evidence to support the hypothesis that pN2 disease is a risk factor for LR, but LR seems to be lower in Asians. Prospective evaluation of LR factors and rates may be necessary before further prospective evaluation of PORT, because it may not depend on nodal status alone. Recurrence rates may differ in Asians. The impact of mutational status and modern treatment including targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors is inadequately studied.