Clinical study on long-term overall survival of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients treated with Chinese medicine and Western medicine

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the prognostic influence on long-term overall survival (OS) from treatment with Chinese medicine (CM) and chemotherapy or targeted therapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Methods: The clinical data of 206 advanced NSCLC patients who were treated with CM and Western medicine in Beijing Cancer Hospital from April 1999 to July 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Long-term survivors were defined as OS ≥ 3 years after treatment with CM and chemotherapy. Twenty-eight patients had OS ≥ 3 years, 178 had OS < 3 years, and all clinical data were statistically analyzed with the Cox model. Variables were gender, age, smoking status, performance status (PS) score, pathological type, clinical stage, first-line chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and use of CM. Univariate survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank sequential inspection. Multivariate survival analysis was used to analyze the meaningful factors of univariate survival analysis with the Cox model.

Results: The survival rate of patients with OS ≥ 3 years was 13.6% (28/206). Cox multivariate regression analysis showed that PS score, clinical stage, disease control rate to first-line chemotherapy, and use of CM were independent factors of longterm OS (all <0.05). However, gender, age, smoking, and use of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine-kinase inhibitor were not significant (P>0.05).

Conclusion: PS score, clinical stage, disease control rate to first-line chemotherapy, and use of CM are probably independent prognostic factors for long-term OS in patients with advanced NSCLC.