Optimal positive lymph node ratio showing the benefit of postoperative radiotherapy in pathologic N2 non-small cell lung cancer: an exploratory study using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data

Purpose This study aimed to identify the clinical parameters having the beneficial effect of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) in pathologic N2 (pN2) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data. Materials and methods Among non-metastatic NSCLC patients in the SEER data, we included patients who diagnosed after 2002, who confirmed as pN2 after lobectomy or pneumonectomy, and who coded as underwent PORT or observation. Patients who survived less than 4 months of diagnosis were excluded in consideration of the perioperative mortality. After performing propensity score matching (PSM) on the selected patients, we compared PORT group with surgery alone group. We also performed exploratory subgroup analysis to find patients who could benefit from PORT. Results Among the selected 4,456 patients, 1,729 patients received PORT, and 2,727 patients did not. There was no survival benefit of PORT in all patients with pN2 disease (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.03, p = 0.5). In subgroup analyses, the patients with a positive lymph node (LN) ratio of 60%–80% showed the significant benefit of PORT (HR = 0.71, p = 0.002). Conclusion PORT did not show the significant survival benefit in patients with pN2 disease after correcting the confoundedness in the SEER data. However, a specific range of LN ratios can be a potential indicator maximizing the survival benefit of PORT.