Quick dip.

With increasing accessibility and popularity of stereotactic body radiation (SBRT) for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), it’s no wonder some are proposing it as—gasp—a reasonable alternative for patients based on preference alone. This prospective observational study of 127 patients undergoing either surgery or SBRT for early-stage NSCLC aimed to capture changes in patient-reported quality of life during and 1, 6, and 12 months after definitive treatment. When charted over time, the only significant difference in slope of change (side note: once you brush off your basic algebra skills, this is a neat way to compare average outcomes) was in the 1-month post-treatment period where there was a brief steep decline after surgery and basically a flat line after SBRT. Probably more important, though, is that the surgical decline was short-lived with no clear difference at subsequent time points. TBL: Post-treatment quality of life isn’t notably impacted by either of the very-well tolerated surgical or SBRT techniques for early-stage NSCLC except in the post-op recovery month. | Nugent, Ann Am Thorac Soc 2020


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