Preoperative chemotherapy for non-small-cell lung cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data

Individual participant data meta-analyses of postoperative chemotherapy have shown improved survival for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We aimed to do a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis to establish the effect of preoperative chemotherapy for patients with resectable NSCLC.

We systematically searched for trials that started after January, 1965. Updated individual participant data were centrally collected, checked, and analysed. Results from individual randomised controlled trials (both published and unpublished) were combined using a two-stage fixed-effect model. Our primary outcome, overall survival, was defined as the time from randomisation until death (any cause), with living patients censored on the date of last follow-up. Secondary outcomes were recurrence-free survival, time to locoregional and distant recurrence, cause-specific survival, complete and overall resection rates, and postoperative mortality. Prespecified analyses explored any variation in effect by trial and patient characteristics. All analyses were by intention to treat.