Advantage of Induction Chemoradiotherapy for Lung Cancer in Securing Cancer-Free Bronchial Margin

Background Bronchoplasty is a useful procedure for preserving pulmonary function. For this procedure, it is critical to secure the negative surgical margin for avoiding local recurrence. In this study, we examined the status of the surgical bronchial margin as well as the clinical outcomes in bronchoplasty with or without induction chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods The medical records of NSCLC patients who underwent bronchoplasty at our institution between January 1999 and September 2014 were reviewed. We compared the clinical outcomes of bronchoplasty with or without induction CRT. Results A total of 58 NSCLC patients were included in this study. Among these, 38 patients underwent primary surgical procedure with bronchoplasty and 20 patients underwent bronchoplasty after induction CRT. Intraoperative pathologic diagnosis for the surgical margin of the bronchus revealed that the patients in the primary surgical procedure group had a significantly higher rate of positive surgical margin than the induction CRT group (p = 0.023), requiring an additional bronchial resection to secure the negative margin. After additional resection of positive bronchial stumps, no significant difference was found in the rate of positive margin with postoperative histologic diagnosis between the two groups. In addition, no significant differences in the postoperative complication rate and overall and recurrence-free survivals were observed between the two groups. Conclusions Our results suggest that induction CRT before surgical procedure may help ensure the intraoperative negative surgical margin of the bronchus. Our study also indicates that bronchoplasty after induction CRT is feasible in comparison with bronchoplasty in primary surgical procedure.