In the original article, there were mistakes in Figure 1 and Tables 1 – 3 as published.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of eligible patients enrolled in this study. From a total of 3,747 patients with malignant pleural effusion (MPE), we identified 1,506 who had been treated with interpleural interleukin-2 (IL-2) and 2,241 who had been treated with intrapleural cisplatin. Of the 1,098 patients given IL-2 (and the 1,875 patients given cisplatin) who had non-small cell lung cancer, 642 who had received IL-2 survived for more than 6 months, and 1,102 who had received cisplatin survived for more than 6 months. Patients in each group were subdivided according to whether they had any vs. no radiotherapy (RT), or extracranial vs. no extracranial RT.
Table 1.
Baseline characteristics.
| Variable | Previous radiotherapy | Previous extracranial radiotherapy | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | No (n=318) | Yes (n=324) | p value | No (n=354) | Yes (n=288) | p value | |
| Sex | |||||||
| Male | 360 | 168(53%) | 192(59%) | 0.101 | 198(56%) | 162(56%) | 0.936 |
| Female | 282 | 150(47%) | 132(41%) | 156(44%) | 126(44%) | ||
| Age, years | |||||||
| ≥55 | 312 | 144(45%) | 168(52%) | 0.497 | 174(49%) | 138(48%) | 0.755 |
| <55 | 330 | 174(55%) | 156(48%) | 180(51%) | 150(52%) | ||
| ECOG PS Score | |||||||
| 0 | 122 | 60(19%) | 62(19%) | 0.992 | 70(20%) | 52(18%) | 0.859 |
| 1 | 412 | 204(64%) | 208(64%) | 225(63%) | 187(65%) | ||
| 2 | 108 | 54(17%) | 54(17%) | 59(17%) | 49(17%) | ||
| Histopathological classification | |||||||
| Squamous cell | 198 | 90(28%) | 108(33%) | 0.168 | 120(34%) | 78(27%) | 0.063 |
| Adenocarcinoma or other | 444 | 228(72%) | 216(67%) | 234(66%) | 210(73%) | ||
| Smoking history | |||||||
| Never-smoker | 402 | 210(66%) | 192(59%) | 0.076 | 233(66%) | 169(58%) | 0.409 |
| Former/current smoker | 240 | 108(34%) | 132(41%) | 121(34%) | 119(42%) | ||
| Diagnosis method | |||||||
| CT guided biopsy | 264 | 126(40%) | 138(43%) | 0.001 | 138(39%) | 126(44%) | 0.001 |
| Pleural effusion cytology | 144 | 78(25%) | 66(20%) | 90(25%) | 54(19%) | ||
| Thoracotomy | 174 | 72(23%) | 102(31%) | 78(22%) | 96(33%) | ||
| Neck lymph node biopsy | 60 | 42(12%) | 18(6%) | 48(14%) | 12(4%) | ||
| Color of Pleural Effusion | |||||||
| Bloody | 426 | 222(70%) | 204(63%) | 0.066 | 246(69%) | 180(63%) | 0.062 |
| Light yellow | 216 | 96(30%) | 120(37%) | 108(31%) | 108(37%) | ||
| Hematologic Findings | |||||||
| Neutrophil count, mean ± IQR, × 103/μl | 6.12 ± 1.78 | 4.48 ± 1.34 | 0.032 | 6.09 ± 1.81 | 4.4 ± 1.32 | 0.034 | |
| Total lymphocyte count, mean ± IQR, × 103/μl | 1.34 ± 0.35 | 2.21 ± 0.70 | 0.021 | 1.35 ± 0.36 | 2.19 ± 0.69 | 0.022 | |
| Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio | 4.56 ± 1.36 | 2.06 ± 0.70 | <0.01 | 4.52 ± 1.41 | 2.02 ± 0.75 | <0.01 | |
| Intrapleural chemotherapy chemotherapy before IL-2 | |||||||
| Yes | 528 | 258(81%) | 270(83%) | 0.466 | 286(81%) | 242(84%) | 0.286 |
| No | 114 | 60(19%) | 54(17%) | 68(19%) | 46(19%) | ||
| History of brain metastases | 68(21%) | 36(10%) | 32(11%) | ||||
| No. Of previous systemic therapies, mean (range) | 2(0-5) | 2(0-5) | 0.017 | 2(0-5) | 3(0-6) | 0.021 | |
| Previous systemic therapies before IL-2 | |||||||
| Yes | 486 | 236(74%) | 250(77%) | 0.384 | 259(73%) | 227(79%) | 0.097 |
| No | 156 | 82(26%) | 74(23%) | 95(27%) | 61(21%) | ||
| Radiotherapy schedule before distant metastasis | |||||||
| ChT→CCRT | 140(43%) | 140(49%) | |||||
| CCRT→ChT | 61(19%) | 61(21%) | |||||
| ChT→RT | 66(20%) | 66(23%) | |||||
| CCRT alone | 21(7%) | 21(7%) | |||||
| Intracranial radiotherapy | 36(11%) | 0 | |||||
| Radiotherapy technology | |||||||
| Conventional radiotherapy | 164(%) | 148(51%) | |||||
| 3D-CRT/MRT | 160(%) | 140(49%) | |||||
| Previous SABR | |||||||
| Yes | 20 | 20(%) | 20(7%) | ||||
| No | 622 | 304(%) | 268(93%) | ||||
ECOG, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group; IMRT, intensity modulated radiotherapy; 3D-CRT, three dimensional conformal radiotherapy; SBRT, stereotactic body radiotherapy or stereotactic radiosurgery.
Table 3.
Predictors associated with overall survival (OS)
| OS* | Any previous RT and OS† | Previous extracranial RT and OS† | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wald x2 | p value | HR | 95% CI | p value | HR | 95% CI | p value | |
|
Sex
(Male vs Female) |
1.610 | 0.205 | ||||||
|
Age
(≥55 vs <55) |
0.030 | 0.863 | ||||||
|
ECOG PS Score
(0 vs 1 vs 2) |
0.071 | 0.790 | ||||||
|
Histopathological classification
(Adenocarcinoma and other vs Squamous) |
1.456 | 0.228 | ||||||
|
Smoking history
(Never vs Former/current) |
3.747 | 0.053 | 0.884 | 0.740-1.054 | 0.169 | 0.875 | 0.733-1.046 | 0.142 |
|
Colour
(Bloody vs Yellow) |
0.269 | 0.604 | ||||||
|
Previous systematic therapy
(Yes vs No) |
1.994 | 0.158 | ||||||
|
Previous intrapleural chemotherapy
(Yes vs No) |
1.673 | 0.196 | ||||||
|
Any previous radiotherapy
(Yes vs No) |
15.033 | <0.001 | 0.726 | 0.611-0.864 | <0.001 | |||
|
Previous extracranial radiotherapy
(Yes vs No) |
17.101 | <0.001 | 0.653 | 0.549-0.778 | <0.001 | |||
Overall survival was defined as the time from the first dose of intrapleural interkeukin-2 until disease progression or death. OS, overall survival.
In Figure 1 , instead of “354 with any prior RT”, “288 with no prior RT”, “324 with prior extra-cranial RT” and “318 without prior extra-cranial RT”, it should be “324 with any prior RT”, “318 with no prior RT”, “288 with prior extra-cranial RT” and “354 without prior extra-cranial RT”, respectively.
Meanwhile, there were mistakes in Table 1 due to some incorrect statistical results. Consequently, Tables 2 and 3 also need to be revised as, after rechecking the data, ECOG score is not significant in Table 2 These errors were caused by the carelessness and mis-operation in statistics and have been identified by the authors so that this would not happen in the future. The corrected Figure 1 and Table 1 to 3 appear below.
Table 2.
Predictors associated with progression free survival (PFS).
| PFS* | Any previous RT and PFS† | Previous extracranial RT and PFS† | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wald x2 | p value | HR | 95% CI | p value | HR | 95% CI | p value | |
|
Sex
(Male vs Female) |
1.778 | 0.182 | ||||||
|
Age
(≥55 vs <55) |
0.056 | 0.812 | ||||||
|
ECOG PS Score
(0 vs 1 vs 2) |
0.104 | 0.747 | ||||||
|
Histopathological classification
(Adenocarcinoma and other vs Squamous) |
1.860 | 0.173 | ||||||
|
Smoking history
(Never vs Former/current) |
2.845 | 0.092 | 0.892 | 0.747-1.064 | 0.204 | 0.862 | 0.721-1.029 | 0.101 |
|
Colour
(Bloody vs Yellow) |
0.178 | 0.673 | ||||||
|
Previous systematic therapy
(Yes vs No) |
1.931 | 0.165 | ||||||
|
Previous intrapleural chemotherapy
(Yes vs No) |
1.859 | 0.173 | ||||||
|
Any previous radiotherapy
(Yes vs No) |
7.299 | 0.007 | 0.805 | 0.677-0.957 | 0.014 | |||
|
Previous extracranial radiotherapy
(Yes vs No) |
9.048 | 0.003 | 0.752 | 0.632-0.895 | 0.001 | |||
Progression-free survival was defined as the time from the first administration of I.P. IL-2 to disease progression or death. HR, hazard ratio. *Univariate analysis.
†Multivariate analysis.
Consequently, a correction has been made to “RESULTS”, “Survival Outcomes”: paragraphs 1 and 2:
“In univariate analysis of the 642 patients who received intrapleural IL-2, having had any prior radiotherapy (p = 0.007) and having had extracranial radiotherapy (p = 0.003) were associated with longer PFS. Multivariate analysis revealed that having had any radiotherapy and extracranial radiotherapy were independent predictors of PFS ( Table 2 ).”
“In univariate analysis of the 642 patients who received intrapleural IL-2, having had any prior radiotherapy (p < 0.001) and extracranial radiotherapy (p < 0.001) were associated with longer OS. Multivariate analysis revealed that having had any radiotherapy and extracranial radiotherapy were independent predictors of OS ( Table 3 ).”
The authors apologize for this error and state that this does not change the scientific conclusions of the article in any way. The original article has been updated.