Timing of chemotherapy after diagnosis of small cell lung cancer.

Systemic chemotherapy is the backbone of therapeutic management in small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and delay of treatment may lead to adverse patient outcomes. This study was conducted to determine the time elapsed between pathological diagnosis and initiation of chemotherapy in SCLC patients and to evaluate its clinical significance. A total of 323 pathologically confirmed SCLC patients were enrolled in the study and analyzed retrospectively. The median value of the patients' time to treatment was used as the cut-off value in distinguishing between early and late chemotherapy. The median (range) of the time interval between the pathological diagnosis and the initiation of chemotherapy was 18 days (1-257). Compared with other clinical variables, only the performance status of patients was significantly associated with the time from diagnosis to initiation of chemotherapy; patients with poor prognostic factors received chemotherapy earlier than other patients (32.9 vs 18.9%, p = 0.004, and 14.5 vs 19 days, p = 0.006). Although patients who received early treatment were found to live less, there was no statistically significant difference in overall survival in patients according to the timing of chemotherapy administration (p = 0.08). In conclusion, there are controversial results about the timing of chemotherapy administration to SCLC patients. More standardized definitions and guides for calculation of the time interval between diagnosis and treatment are needed to better understand the delays in the treatment of patients with clinically rapidly disseminating SCLC.