Meta-analysis of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with tegafur-uracil in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Purpose: Recent clinical trials have shown the efficacy of platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy for completely resected non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In Japan, many clinical trials of adjuvant chemotherapy with tegafur-uracil (UFT) have been conducted, and some trials showed positive results while others showed negative results. Thus, we performed a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT in NSCLC.

Methods: Among nine trials of postoperative adjuvant UFT-containing chemotherapy, six trials comparing surgery alone with surgery plus UFT were identified. Of six trials, two were three-arm trials including cisplatin-based chemotherapy followed by UFT, and data from that arm were not included in the meta-analysis.

Results: Of 2,003 eligible patients, most (98.8%) had squamous cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma, and most had stage I disease; the tumor classification was T1 in 1,308 (65.3%), T2 in 674 (33.6%), and the nodal status was N0 in 1,923 (96.0%). The two treatment groups did not differ significantly in major prognostic factors. The median duration of follow-up was 6.44 years. The survival rates at 5 and 7 years were significantly higher in the surgery plus UFT group (81.5% and 76.5%, respectively) than in the surgery alone group (77.2% and 69.5%, respectively; P = .011 and .001, respectively). The overall pooled hazard ratio was 0.74, and its 95% CI was 0.61 to 0.88 (P = .001).

Conclusion: This meta-analysis showed that postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with UFT was associated with improved 5- and 7-year survival in a Japanese patient population composed primarily of stage I adenocarcinoma patients.