ArticleThe Annals of thoracic surgery2026
Dropout after Neoadjuvant Chemoimmunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Veterans Health Administration.
Article in The Annals of thoracic surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMultiple studies have demonstrated excellent survival for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who undergo induction chemoimmunotherapy followed by surgery. However, up to 22% of patients in these studies did not undergo surgical resection. National Veterans Health Administration data outlining the uptake, utilization, and dropout in this cohort are limited. We sought to describe utilization, non-progression to surgery, and outcomes in this cohort.
methodsUsing the United States Veterans Health Administration database, we identified patients with clinical stage (cStage) IB-III-N2 non-small cell lung cancer who underwent chemoimmunotherapy (2021-2024). All patients received at least 2 cycles CIO. Exclusion criteria included radiation during chemoimmunotherapy, clinical N3 disease, >4 cycles chemoimmunotherapy, or cStage IV disease. Clinicopathological characteristics and treatment patterns were described. Overall survival (OS) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.
resultsIn total, 86 patients met final inclusion criteria: 60 (69.8%) underwent surgery and 26 (30.2%) did not. The groups had similar cStage, age, and comorbidities. Among patients who did not undergo surgery, 46.2% developed distant metastatic disease during induction therapy. The 2-year OS was 80.2% for the entire cohort (86.7% surgical; 65.8% non-surgical).
conclusionsIn our nationally representative cohort, patients undergoing chemoimmunotherapy with intent for surgical resection had favorable intermediate-term survival. however, nearly one-third of patients did not undergo surgery, most commonly due to disease progression. These findings highlight the need to better identify patients who do not progress to resection and define management strategies for these patients.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.