Overall survival in low-comorbidity patients with stage I non–small cell lung cancer who chose stereotactic body radiotherapy compared to surgery

To evaluate trends in the utilization of stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and to compare overall survival (OS) of patients with early-stage non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) undergoing SBRT versus those undergoing surgery. The National Cancer Database was queried for patients without documented comorbidities who underwent surgical resection (lobectomy, segmentectomy, or wedge resection) or SBRT for clinical stage I NSCLC between 2012 and 2018. Peritreatment mortality and 5-year OS were compared among propensity score–matched cohorts. A total of 30,658 patients were identified, including 24,729 (80.7%) who underwent surgery and 5929 (19.3%) treated with SBRT. Between 2012 and 2018, the proportion of patients receiving SBRT increased from 15.9% to 26.0% (P