Nomograms for predicting progression and efficacy of post-operation radiotherapy in IIIA-pN2 non-small cell lung cancer patients

In this retrospective study, we developed nomograms for predicting the efficacy of post-operation radiotherapy (PORT) in IIIA-N2 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. In total, 334 patients received post-operational chemotherapy and were included in the analysis. Of those, 115 also received either concurrent or sequential post-operational radiotherapy (PORT). Nomograms were developed using Cox proportional hazard regression models to identify clinicopathological characteristics that predicted progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), and subgroup analyses of the effects of PORT were performed using nomogram risk scores. PFS and OS predicted using the nomogram agreed well with actual PFS and OS, and patients with high PFS/OS nomogram scores had poorer prognoses. In subgroup analyses, PORT increased survival more in patients with low PFS nomogram risk scores or high OS nomogram risk scores. Thus, our novel nomogram risk score model predicted PFS, OS, and the efficacy of PORT in IIIA-N2 NSCLC patients.