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Annals of Oncology 9:543-547, 1998
© 1998 European Society for Medical Oncology

research-article

Improvement and plateau in survival of small-cell lung cancer since 1975: A population-based study

M. L. G. Janssen-Heijnen1,, R. M. Schipper3, P. J. J. M. Klinkhamer4, M. A. Crommelin5 and J.-W.W. Coebergh1,2

1Eindhoven Cancer Registry, Comprehensive Cancer Centre South Eindhoven
2Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Erasmus University Medical School Rotterdam
3Department of Pulmonary Diseases Catharina Hospital Eindhoven
4PAMM Laboratory of Pathology and Microbiology Eindhoven
5Department of Radiotherapy Catharina Hospital, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Correspondence to: M. L. G. Janssen-Heijnen, MSc., Comprehensive Cancer Centre South, P.O. Box 231 5600 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

BACKGROUND: Cytotoxic therapy appears to have improved short-term survival for patients with small-cell lung cancer, but little is known about the results for unselected patients and trends in long-term survival.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: One thousand seven hundred ninety-six patients with small-cell lung cancer diagnosed between 1975 and 1994 in southeastern Netherlands. We studied treatment policy for and survival of unselected patients since 1975, when cytotoxic therapy emerged.

RESULTS: The proportion patients receiving chemotherapy, with or without irradiation, almost tripled from 30% to 82% for patients younger than 70 years of age and from 15% to 56% for those over 70, whereas the proportion receiving only radio-therapy decreased from 36% to 5% in both age groups. The short-term (<2 year) survival rate improved markedly between 1975 and 1989, especially for patients younger than 70 (median survival increased from five to 10 months). Two-year survival remained poor (8%). Two percent of all patients younger than 70 years at diagnosis survived for at least eight years, but these patients still represent an excess five-year mortality of 39%.

CONCLUSIONS: In southeastern Netherlands short-term survival of patients with small-cell lung cancer improved markedly up to the end of the 1980s, but a major impact on cure rates has not been achieved.

cancer registry, patterns of care, small-cell lung cancer, survival


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