31. Aug. 2017

NSCLC: An annual CT-scan after surgery might be enough

The majority of clinical practice guidelines are recommending follow-up visits in which chest CTs are considered appropriate every three to six months in the first two years after NSCLC-surgery. But that might not be necessary according to the results of the IFCT-0302 trial (Westeel V et al., abstract 1273O), presented at the ESMO 2017 Congress in Madrid.

The multicenter-study included 1775 patients with completely resected stage-I-II-IIIA NSCLC who were randomized to a control follow-up, that included clinical examination and x-ray (CXR), or an experimental follow-up that included the control protocol with the addition of thoraco-abdominal CT-scan plus bronchoscopy.

After a median follow-up of over eight years, overall survival (OS) was not significantly different between the groups. Three-year disease-free survival rates were also similar, at 63,3% and 60,2% respectively, as were eight-year OS rates at 51,7% and 54,6%.

“Because there is no difference between arms, both follow-up protocols are acceptable”, says study investigator Prof. Virginie Westeel (Hospital Jean Minjoz, Besancon, France). “A conservative point of view would be to do a yearly CT-scan, which might be of interest over the long-term. However, doing regular scans every six months may be of no value in the first two post-operative years.”

Westeel V et al., abstract 1273O: Results of the phase III IFCT-0302 trial assessing minimal versus CT-scan-based follow-up for completely resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

The study will be presented at the Presidential Symposium I on Saturday, 9.Sept 2017, 16:30 to 18:00 in the Madrid Auditorium