KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of TSR following chemotherapy in patients with SCLC.
- Researchers noticed that TSR could be a valuable predictor of OS and PFS in patients with SCLC undergoing 1L chemotherapy.
Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death, and the prognostic significance of tumor shrinkage rate (TSR) following chemotherapy remains unclear.
Yuchen Zhou and the team aimed to explore how TSR, a measure of tumor reduction, correlates with patient outcomes in SCLC treated with first-line (1L) chemotherapy.
They performed an inclusive analysis of 235 patients with SCLC. The TSR cutoff was established through receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis. Associations between TSR and progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated using both univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models.
Survival curves were generated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with the log-rank test. Recurrence patterns following 1L treatment were illustrated with a pie chart. Additionally, a nomogram was created to validate the predictive role of TSR in SCLC.
About the identified TSR cutoff of -6.6%, median PFS and OS were longer in the group with a TSR < -6.6% compared to those with a TSR ≥ -6.6%. PFS and OS were also extended in patients with extensive SCLC when TSR was < -6.6% vs when TSR was > -6.6%. Brain metastasis-free survival was superior in the group with a TSR < -6.6%. A significant positive correlation was observed between TSR and PFS.
Furthermore, univariate and multivariate regression analyses revealed that TSR, patient age, and previous radiotherapy were independent prognostic factors for OS, while TSR and M stage were independent prognostic factors for PFS.
The study concluded that the TSR may prove to be a valuable indicator of OS and PFS in patients undergoing chemotherapy-based 1L treatment for SCLC.
The study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81871966) and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (LY15H160062).
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39095855/
Zhou Y, Wu Z, Wang H, et al. (2024). “Evaluation of the prognosis in patients with small-cell lung cancer treated by chemotherapy using tumor shrinkage rate-based radiomics.” Eur J Med Res. 2024 Aug 2;29(1):401. doi: 10.1186/s40001-024-02001-4. PMID: 39095855; PMCID: PMC11297595.