Thomas D'Amico

The NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) provide recommended management for patients with SCLC, including diagnosis, primary treatment, surveillance for relapse, and subsequent treatment. This selection for the journal focuses on metastatic (known as extensive-stage) SCLC, which is more common than limited-stage SCLC. Systemic therapy alone can palliate symptoms and prolong survival in most patients with extensive-stage disease. Smoking cessation counseling and intervention should be strongly promoted in patients with SCLC and other high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas. The "Summary of the Guidelines Updates" section in the SCLC algorithm outlines the most recent revisions for the 2022 update, which are described in greater detail in this revised Discussion text.

BACKGROUND: The outcomes associated with receipt of adjuvant radiation in patients following surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) are poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to use two registries to compare the outcomes of patients receiving adjuvant radiation or no radiation following definitive surgery for pathologic stage I-III MPM. METHODS: Patients with resected pathologic stage I-III MPM were identified from the Duke University registry (1996-2016) and National Cancer Database (2004-2015). The primary outcome was overall survival (OS). Propensity score-matched and landmark subgroup analyses were performed. A total of 212 institutional and 1615 NCDB patients met criteria. In both cohorts, patients who underwent radiation were more likely to have margin-negative resection and more advanced pathologic stage. At a landmark time of 4.4 and 4.7 months from surgery, Duke (HR 1.14; 95%CI 0.62-2.11) and NCDB patients (HR 0.97; 95%CI 0.81-1.17) who received adjuvant radiation did not experience improved survival compared to those who did not receive radiation in multivariable analysis. Duke patients who received radiation had similar incidence of recurrence and time to both overall recurrence and ipsilateral recurrence (HR 0.87; 95%CI 0.43-1.77) compared to those who did not. Duke patients experienced 100 grade 1/2, 21 grade 3/4, and one grade 5 toxicity events during radiation. CONCLUSION: In this dual registry analysis of patients with resected stage I-III MPM, the receipt of adjuvant hemithoracic radiation was not associated with improved survival compared to no radiation.