Is There a Prognostic Difference Between Stage IIIA Subgroups in Lung Cancer

Abstract Background Treatment of stage IIIA lung cancer remains controversial because it includes a very heterogeneous group of patients. The purpose of our study was to compare survival between stage IIIA-subsets, and to externally validate our results with another center's database. Methods Patients with completely resected stage IIIA/B lung cancer were retrospectively analyzed. There were 424 patients with stage IIIA and 82 patients with stage IIIB (T3/4N2) (study cohort). Stage IIIA was divided into two subsets according to the tumor localization / tumor size (T3N1-T4N0/1, IIIA-T group; n=308) and the extension of nodal disease (T1/2N2, IIIA-N2 group; n=116). According to the study cohort results, a model for stage IIIA patients was created. It was validated with another center's database (validation cohort). Results In the multivariate analyses, age, stage IIIB and pN2 were all independent negative prognostic factors (p Conclusions There is a prognostic difference between stage IIIA subgroups in lung cancer patients who undergo surgical treatment.