A Retrospective Study of Patients Undergoing Palliative Radiotherapy for Airway Obstruction due to Lung Cancer

Background/Aim: In advanced stage lung cancer, bulky tumors can cause serious symptoms such as malignant airway obstruction (MAO). Prompt response to airway obstruction might be essential to improve quality of life and prolong life expectancy. Palliative external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) is a less invasive and highly safe treatment method that can alleviate symptoms and at the same time treat lung cancer. However, there are few reports on the results of palliative radiotherapy performed for improving airway obstruction and obstructive pneumonia. Therefore, this study retrospectively examined the effectiveness of palliative radiotherapy. Patients and Methods: We reviewed 38 lung cancer patients with MAO who underwent EBRT. Patients were treated with a median dose of 37.5 Gy (range=30-40 Gy) in 10-20 fractions. Whether a patient was a responder or non-responder was assessed by whether the bronchus that was obstructed before EBRT reopened or improvement of obstructive pneumonia was observed on follow-up chest X-ray or computed tomography after EBRT. Results: The median survival time was 135 days (range=31-469 days) for the responders to EBRT and 45 days (range=23-355 days) for non-responders; this difference was statistically significant (p=0.03). One-year overall survival rate was 18.5% and 0% for the responders to EBRT and non-responders, respectively. Conclusion: Palliative EBRT might be an important option for non-curative lung cancer patients with MAO.