Outcomes of sublobar resection vs lobectomy for invasive clinical stage T1N0 non-small-cell lung cancer: A propensity-match analysis.

Background: The role of sub lobar resection (SLR; either segmentectomy or wedge resection) vs lobectomy (LBCT) for invasive clinical stage T1N0 non-small-cell-lung-cancer (NSCLC) has not been fully established yet.

Aim: We aimed to characterize the preoperative parameters leading to selecting SLR and compare the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of these two surgical approaches.

Methods: Clinical data on 162 patients (LBCT-107; SLR-55) were prospectively entered in our departmental database. Preoperative parameters associated with the performance of SLR were identified using univariate and multivariate cox regression analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compute OS and DFS. Comparison between LBCT and SLR groups and 32 propensity-matched groups was performed using Log-rank test.

Results: Median follow-up time for the LBCT and SLR groups was 4.76 (Inter-quartile range [IQR] 2.96 to 8.23) and 3.38 (IQR 2.9 to 6.19) years respectively. OS and DFS rates were similar between the two groups in the entire cohort (OS-LBCT vs SLR P = .853, DSF-LBCT vs SLR P = .653) and after propensity matching (OS-LBCT vs SLR P = .563 DSF-LBCT vs SLR P = .632). Specifically, Two- and five-year OS rates for LBCT and SLR were 90.6.% vs 92.7%, 71.8% vs 75.9% respectively. Independent predictors of selecting for SLR included older age (P < .001), reduced FEV1% (P = .026), smaller tumor size (P = .025), smaller invasive component (P = .021) and higher American Society of Anesthesiology scores (P = .014).

Conclusions: In 162 consecutive and 32 matched cases, SLR and lobar resection had similar overall and disease-free survival rates. SLR may be considered as a reasonable oncological procedure in carefully selected T1N0 NSCLC patients that present with multiple comorbidities and relatively small tumors.