Real-world efficacy of adjuvant therapy for totally resected stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients with pathological high-risk factors: propensity score analysis

We investigated the real-world efficacy of adjuvant therapy for stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients with pathological high-risk factors.

Study participants were enrolled from November 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020. Clinical bias was balanced by propensity score matching. Disease-free survival (DFS) outcomes were compared by Kaplan–Meier analysis. The Cox proportional hazards regression was used to identify survival-associated factors. p ≤ 0.05 was the threshold for statistical significance.

A total of 454 patients, among whom 134 (29.5%) underwent adjuvant therapy, were enrolled in this study. One hundred and eighteen of the patients who underwent adjuvant therapy were well matched with non-treatment patients. Prognostic outcomes of the treatment group were significantly better than those of the non-treatment group, as revealed by Kaplan-Meier analysis after PSM. Differences in prevention of recurrence or metastasis between the targeted therapy and chemotherapy groups were insignificant. Adjuvant therapy was found to be positive prognostic factors, tumor size and solid growth patterns were negative.

Adjuvant therapy significantly improved the DFS for stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients with high-risk factors. Larger prospective clinical trials should be performed to verify our findings.