Objective: To determine the prognostic factors for the survival in a group of patients operated on for a non-small cell lung cancer classified as T2N1M0.
Patients and methods: Two hundred sixteen patients treated exclusively with surgery were studied. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox multivariable regression analyses were used.
Results: The overall survival rate was 39.8% at 5 years and 29.9% at 10 years. Sex, age, presence or absence of symptoms, type of resection, number, and location of affected lymph nodes had no effect on survival. Tumor size (P=.04) and histologic type (P=.03) did significantly affect prognosis. Both variables entered into the Cox multivariable regression model.
Conclusions: Patients operated on for non-small cell lung cancer classified as T2N1M0 have an overall probability of 5-year survival of approximately 40%. However, the prognosis for this group of patients is heterogeneous: in our study it was affected by the histologic type (45.5% for squamous cell and 25% for non-squamous cell cancers) and tumor size (53% for tumors with a diameter of <or=3 cm, 45% for tumors between 3.1 and 5 cm, and 29% for a tumor diameter >5 cm).