Use of national databases: interpreting treatment outcomes using real-world data

In our paper “Long-Term Results for Clinical Stage IA Lung Cancer: Comparing Lobectomy and Sublobar Resection”, we used an enhanced dataset from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to compare 5-year overall survival (OS) and disease recurrence in propensity matched patients undergoing lobectomy or sublobar resection for clinical stage IA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (1). We found that 5-year OS was similar between cohorts. However, those undergoing sublobar resection were identified to have a 39% increased risk of cancer recurrence.