Surgery versus chemoradiotherapy in patients with stage T1-2N0M0 small cell lung cancer - a retrospective cohort study

Q: How were CSS and OS evaluated in the analysis?

Cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression.

Q: What did the study find regarding survival between the two treatments?

Surgical resection was associated with significantly longer median CSS and improved OS compared with chemoradiotherapy, including results before and after propensity score matching.

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky

Purpose: compare survival outcomes of surgical resection versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy in stage T1-2N0M0 small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Methods: stage T1-2N0M0 SCLC cases from SEER (2000–2020) were analyzed with Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards models for cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). Results: 190 surgery and 371 chemoradiotherapy patients; surgery showed longer median CSS and improved OS after propensity score matching. Conclusion: surgical resection is associated with superior survival versus chemoradiotherapy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Materials and methods

Zhou et al. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2026) 21:226 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-026-03995-0](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13019-026-03995-0) Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery RESEARCH Open Access Surgery versus chemoradiotherapy in patients with stage T1-2N0M0 small cell lung cancer: a retrospective cohort study Lei Zhou1, Shou-Feng Wang2, Cheng-Xian Ma 1, Wei Huang1 and Xin-Bin Pan 1,3* Abstract Purpose To compare survival outcomes of surgical resection versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with stage T1-2N0M0 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) . Materials and methods We extracted stage T1-2N0M0 SCLC from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database between 2000 and 2020. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression were employed to assess cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) . Results The study cohort comprised 190 patients undergoing surgical resection and 371 patients receiving chemoradiotherapy. Median CSS was significantly longer in the surgical group compared to the chemoradiotherapy group (123 months vs. 33 months) . Multivariable analysis confirmed surgery as an independent protective factor for CSS, both before (hazard ratio [HR] = 0 . 51, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0 .38–0. 68; P < 0. 001) and after (HR = 0 . 52, 95% CI: 0 .37–0. 73; P < 0. 001) propensity score matching. Similarly, surgery was associated with significantly improved OS in multivariable analysis before (HR = 0 . 58, 95% CI: 0 .46–0. 73; P < 0. 001) and after (HR = 0 . 60, 95% CI: 0 .45–0. 80; P < 0. 001) propensity score matching. Cumulative incidence analysis revealed a significantly higher 5-year SCLC-specific mortality rate in the chemoradiotherapy group (57 . 1% vs. 33. 8%, P < 0. 001) . Conversely, 5-year non-cancer mortality (13 . 3% vs. 16.4%, P = 0 . 984), lung comorbidity-related mortality (3 . 5% vs. 3. 2%, P = 0 . 228), and cardiovascular mortality (3 . 5% vs. 2. 6%, P = 0 . 713) were comparable between the two groups. Conclusion Surgical resection is associated with significantly superior survival outcomes compared to chemoradiotherapy in patients with stage T1-2N0M0 SCLC. Keywords Small cell lung cancer, Stage T1-2N0M0, Chemoradiotherapy, Surgery *Correspondence: Xin-Bin Pan [panxinbin@gxmu.edu.cn](panxinbin@gxmu.edu.cn) 1Department of Radiation Oncology, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, P. R. China 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, P. R. China 3No. 71 Hedi Road, Qingxiu District, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/](vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)[.](vecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.) Zhou et al. Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery (2026) 21:226 Introduction Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide [1]. Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for approxim

FAQs

What is the primary purpose of the study?

To compare survival outcomes of surgical resection versus concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with stage T1-2N0M0 small cell lung cancer.

How were CSS and OS evaluated in the analysis?

Cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) were assessed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression.

What did the study find regarding survival between the two treatments?

Surgical resection was associated with significantly longer median CSS and improved OS compared with chemoradiotherapy, including results before and after propensity score matching.

Sep 23, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky