Impact of in vitro chemosensitivity test-guided platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy on the surgical outcomes of patients with p-stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer that underwent complete resection

The impact of in vitro chemosensitivity test-guided platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy on the surgical outcomes of patients undergoing complete resection for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has yet to be elucidated. In the present study, the utility of adjuvant chemotherapy based on the collagen gel droplet embedded culture drug sensitivity test (CD-DST) in patients with p (pathology)-stage IIIA NSCLC was retrospectively analyzed. A series of 39 patients that had received platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy following complete resection between 2007 and 2012 were enrolled. Their surgical specimens were subjected to the CD-DST. The patients were subsequently classified into two groups on the basis of in vitro anti-cancer drug sensitivity data obtained using the CD-DST: The sensitive group (25 patients) were treated with regimens including one or two of the anti-cancer drug(s) that were indicated to be effective by the CD-DST, whereas the non-sensitive group (14 patients) were treated with chemotherapy regimens that did not include any CD-DST-selected anti-cancer drugs. There were no significant differences in the background characteristics of the two groups [including in respect of the pathological TN (tumor-lymph node) stage, tumor histology, epidermal growth factor receptor mutation status, the frequency of each chemotherapy regimen, and the number of administered cycles]. The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate of the sensitive group was 32.3%, whereas that of the non-sensitive group was 14.3% (P=0.037). In contrast, no difference in overall survival (OS) was observed (P=0.76). Multivariate analysis revealed that adjuvant chemotherapy based on the CD-DST had a significant favorable effect on the DFS (P=0.01). Therefore, the present study has demonstrated that CD-DST data obtained from surgical specimens aid the selection of effective platinum-based adjuvant chemotherapy regimens for patients undergoing complete resection for p-stage IIIA NSCLC. The use of CD-DST-guided platinum-based regimens may have a beneficial impact on the DFS of such patients.