Patterns of failure after postoperative radiotherapy for incompletely resected (R1) non-small cell lung cancer: Implications for radiation target volume design

PORT resulted in a relatively good survival of R1-resected NSCLC patients. Relatively high incidence of INF was found in both ECE+ and ECE− patients. For ECE+ patients, treated with limited ENI, distant failure remains a major concern, so the design of ENI fields seems of lesser importance. Omission of ENI in pN0-1 (extranodal-R1) patients resulted in an unacceptably high incidence of INF. We postulate the use of some form of ENI in this setting.