Treatment guidelines for typical bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors recommend observation alone after resection of stage I-IIIA disease, but there are limited data related to the use of adjuvant chemotherapy in the setting of nodal metastases found at operation.

Patients in the National Cancer Data Base (NDCB) who underwent lobectomy for typical carcinoid and had metastatic nodal disease were stratified by the use of adjuvant chemotherapy. Baseline characteristics and outcomes were compared between groups. Next, patients were propensity matched using a 3:1 nearest-neighbor algorithm, and adjusted outcomes were compared. Finally, long-term survival was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method with comparisons based on the log-rank test.

Overall, 4,612 patients were identified, among whom 629 (13.6%) had positive lymph nodes at the time of operation. Of them, adjuvant chemotherapy was used in 37 patients (5.9%). There were no baseline differences between patients who did and those who did not receive adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients treated with chemotherapy demonstrated a survival disadvantage at 5 years (69.7% versus 81.9%; p = 0.042). After propensity matching, all baseline characteristics between groups were highly similar. There remained a trend toward inferior 5-year survival for patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy, although the difference no longer met statistical significance (69.7% versus 80.9%; p = 0.096).

Adjuvant chemotherapy is not associated with improved survival among patients who undergo lobectomy for typical carcinoids and nodal metastases. These data support current treatment guidelines.