Evidence of slight improvement in five-year survival in non-small-cell lung cancer over the last 10 years: Results of the French KBP-CPHG real-world studies

Although improved during the last decades, the prognosis of lung cancer is poor. In 2000, the French College of general hospital respiratory physicians, conducted KBP-2000-CPHG, a prospective multicenter epidemiological study including all volunteer adult patients diagnosed for primary lung cancer; with the five-year survival as primary endpoint. The primary objective of KBP-2010-CPHG was to compare overall five-year survival data with KBP-2000-CPHG ones. All consecutive patients ≥ 18 years of age with primary lung cancer diagnosed between 1st January and 31st December 2010 were included. The KBP-2010-CPHG protocol was approved by the advisory committee on research information processing in the health field (CCTIRS) on November 19, 2009. Respectively, 5667 and 7051 patients were included in KBP-2000-CPHG and KBP-2010-CPHG. Five-year survival was improved: 12.7% [11.9%–13.5%] in 2010 versus 10.0% [9.2%–10.9%] in 2000 (P < 0.001). Non-small-cell lung cancer showed improvement (13.8% [13.0%–14.8%] in 2010 versus 11.4% [10.5%–12.4%] in 2000; P < 0.001); but not small-cell lung cancer (5.7% [4.4%–7.4%] in 2010 versus 3.3% [2.3%–4.7%] in 2000; P = 0.56). The KBP-2010-CPHG study showed an overall 6% reduction in risk of death (HR = 0.94 [0.89–0.98]; P = 0.004). Survival of patients with lung cancer improved over a 10-year period. This improvement was slight and limited to non-small-cell lung cancer, possibly partly because of 2010 advances in diagnosis and targeted therapy.