The survival benefit from surgery on patients with large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma in the lung: a propensity-score matching study

This study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of surgery in large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNC) patients. A total of 453 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database diagnosed with stage T1-4N0-2M0 LCNC from 2010 to 2015 were analyzed. The propensity-score matching analysis with a ratio of 1:1 was used to minimize the bias effect of other clinical characteristics, and 77 pairs of patients' data were performed for subsequent statistical analysis. The Cox proportional hazards model, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and Log-rank test were used in the present study. The primary observational endpoint was cancer-specific survival (CSS). The 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year CSS rates were 60.0%, 45.0%, and 42.0% in those 453 LCNC patients. Compared with patients who underwent surgical resection, patients without surgery had a lower 5-year CSS rate (18.0% vs. 52.0%, P