Comparison of survival outcomes between sublobar resection and lobectomies in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma by propensity score matching analysis

The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical outcomes of sublobar resections and compare these with those of lobectomies in early-stage lung adenocarcinoma patients. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 871 patients who underwent lobectomies or sublobar resections for early-stage lung adenocarcinomas. Two hundred thirty-five (27.0%) patients underwent sublobar resections (wedge and segmentectomies), and 636 (73.0%) underwent lobectomies. Propensity score matching resulted in 2 groups each with 219 patients. Survival analysis was performed. Mean age of matched patients was 61.9 (± 10.38, range of 21 to 91) years, mean follow-up period was 50.8 (± 27.57, range of 6.1 to 128.9) months, and mean tumor size was 15.2 (± 6.49, range of 3.0 to 45.0) mm. Overall recurrence rate was 9.4% (41 patients), and it was 8.7% (19 patients) in sublobar resection patients and 9.6% (21 patients) in lobectomy patients. Rates and sites of recurrence were not significantly different between the two surgical groups (p = 0.500 and 0.401, respectively). Overall 5-year survival and recurrence-free survival of sublobar resection patients were 90.6 and 89.5%, respectively, whereas those of lobectomy patients were 91.9 and 88.3%, respectively. No significant differences in overall 5-year survival rate or recurrence-free survival rate were found between the two groups (p = 0.636 and p = 0.975, respectively). Prognosis of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma treated with sublobar resection was not inferior to that treated with lobectomy in carefully selected cases. Further investigations, including randomized controlled trials, are needed to identify the equivalent oncologic efficacy of sublobar resections.