Long-term outcome of induction chemoradiotherapy with docetaxel and cisplatin followed by surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer with mediastinal lymph node metastasis

The purpose of this study was to show the long-term outcome of induction chemoradiotherapy, using docetaxel and cisplatin with concurrent radiotherapy followed by surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with mediastinal nodal metastasis. Between January 2000 and July 2006, 22 consecutive NSCLC patients with pathologically proven mediastinal nodal metastasis were treated with tri-modality therapy. The regimen consisted of docetaxel and cisplatin plus concurrent radiation at a dose of 40-46 Gy. The induction therapy was followed by surgery 4-6 weeks later. The pulmonary resections were composed of a lobectomy in 19 patients, including 3 with a sleeve lobectomy, a bilobectomy in 2 patients and a left pneumonectomy in 1 patient. With a median follow-up duration of 8.7 years, the 3-year and 7-year overall survival (OS) rates for the entire population were 72.7 and 63.6%, respectively. Our results suggest that tri-modality therapy is promising for NSCLC patients with mediastinal nodal metastasis.