Does Routine Clinical Practice Reproduce the Outcome of Large Prospective Trials? The Analysis of Institutional Database on Patients with Limited-Disease Small-Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

We performed the analysis of database on 409 patients with LD-SCLC to evaluate as to what extent the clinical outcome of large prospective trials was reproduced in routine practice. The analysis has shown that the hazard rate of death in the absence of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) adjusted for the effects of confounding factors, appeared larger than that reported in the trials on PCI in LD-SCLC, and was comparable to that estimated for extensive disease. Less intense routine staging procedures, compared to the trial settings, contributed for such outcome. Hyperfractionated thoracic radiotherapy provided survival advantage similar to that reported in the literature.

Keywords: :

• Small cell lung cancer
• Prophylactic cranial irradiation
• Dose fractionation