Personalized adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II–III non-small cell lung cancer

Surgery is the standard of care for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The overall survival rates especially in patients with locally advanced lung cancer are low. The resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapeutic drugs reduces the efficacy of treatment. Special attention is paid to the feasibility of assessing the tumor sensitivity to certain chemotherapy drugs. Currently, the most studied predictors are monoresistance and multidrug resistance genes, such as ABCC5, RRM1, ERCC1, BRCA1, TOP1, TOP2a, TUBB3 and TYMS.The aim of the study was to analyze the outcomes of combined modality treatment using radical surgery and personalized adjuvant chemotherapy for stage II–III NSCLC.Material and Methods. The study included 120 patients with stage II–III NSCLC, who underwent radical lung resection with mediastinal ipsilateral lymph node dissection. The patients were then divided into two groups. The main group consisted of 60 patients who received personalized platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy based on the expression levels of the genes, such as ABCC5, RRM1, ERCC1, BRCA1, TOP1, TOP2a, TUBB3 and TYMS. The control group consisted of 60 patients who received postoperative chemotherapy empirically.Results. In the main group, disease progression occurred in 14 out of 60 patients, three-year disease-free survival (DFS) was 76.7 % (the median was not reached). In the control group, DFS was 53.3 % (28 out of 60 patients), the median was 31.0 (4–36 months); the differences were statistically significant: Logrank test χ2 =4.382 p=0.036. The overall three–year survival rate was 90.0 % in the main group (6/60 patients died) and 61.7 % in the control group (23/60 patients died), the differences were statistically signifcant: Logrank test χ2 =6.915, p=0.009.Conclusion. The personalized adjuvant chemotherapy resulted in the improved three-year relapse-free and overall survival rates in NSCLC patients.