Among patients who underwent radical tumor resection ( N = 37), RFS was longer in patients with better PS and showed a trend towards a longer RFS in those treated with peri-operative chemotherapy than with surgery alone (11 vs. 6 months; p = 0.078).
Multivariate analysis was performed using the backward stepwise method after including all variables with significant or near-significant association ( p ≤ 0.10) at either log-rank or univariate analysis by Cox proportional hazard method.
Among the 28 patients receiving chemotherapy for advanced disease, there was also a near-significant trend towards a longer median PFS in those receiving carboplatin-etoposide chemotherapy compared to those receiving other kinds of chemotherapy (6.0 vs. 4.0 months, respectively, p = 0.051).
The RFS difference by perioperative chemotherapy administration did not reach statistical significance despite the RFS being numerically longer in patients who received perioperative chemotherapy compared to those receiving surgery alone (11 months (95% CI: 8.1–13.9) vs. 6 months (95% CI: 5.2–6.8), respectively; p = 0.078, Figure 2 b).