ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1640306
This article is part of the Research TopicRecent Advances in Radiation Oncology for the Management of Thoracic MalignanciesView all 15 articles
Efficacy and safety of thoracic radiotherapy combined with anti-angiogenic therapy and immunochemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients: a retrospective study
Provisionally accepted
- Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, China
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Purpose: To assess the efficacy and safety of radiotherapy combined with anti-angiogenic therapy, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and chemotherapy for advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods: Patients who have received at least 2 cycles of quadruple therapy were retrospectively collected and grouped according to the radiation therapy prescription, and progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and treatment-related side effects were comprehensively evaluated using R language and Chi-square test. Results: 74 patients were enrolled and divided into two groups, A and B, based on whether they had received radiotherapy. The incidence rate of adverse events, such as radiation-related pneumonitis, pneumonia, thrombocytopenia, cough, panting, fatigue, and radiodermatitis are significantly higher in patients receiving radiotherapy. A survival analysis comparing the experimental and control group revealed that the addition of radiotherapy played a positive role in extending PFS and OS, with statistically significant results observed for OS (HR(95%CI)=0.51[0.283, 0.919]; p =0.019). The risk of radiation-related pneumonitis was significantly higher than that in the control group (p <0.001), and was related to a negative impact on the prognosis; a similar trend was also observed for pneumonia (p =0.041) and thrombocytopenia (p <0.001). Conclusions: Sequential radiotherapy after quadruple therapy can prolong the survival of patients with advanced NSCLC; however, special attention should be paid to treatment-related side effects such as pneumonitis, pneumonia, and thrombocytopenia, which may affect the prognosis of patients.
Keywords: lung cancer, NSCLC, Radiotherapy, anti-angiogenic therapy, Immunotherapy, Immune checkpoint inhibitor, combination therapy
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gai, Shi, Xu, Ding, Liu, Zhang, Wang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ling Chen, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, China
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