Architectural Grade Combined With Spread Through Air Spaces (STAS) Predicts Recurrence and is Suitable for Stratifying Patients Who Might Be Eligible for Lung Sparing Surgery for Stage I Adenocarcinomas

The spread through air spaces (STAS) has a main role in local recurrence of stage I lung adenocarcinomas (LAs), therefore its presence might question sublobar resection as a therapeutic option. The aim of our study was to evaluate the distribution of STAS in stage I LAs, to stratify patients according to local recurrence and to identify a group of patients who might be suitable for sublobar surgery. Patients resected with LA were included. The presence of STAS was recorded on hematoxylin eosin stained slides and clinicopathological data were obtained from medical charts. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were registered. Statistical methods included Kruskal-Wallis tests, Kaplan-Meier analyses, log-rank tests and Cox-regressions. 292 patients were included. STAS was identified in 38.7% and 95.7% of micropapillary carcinomas showed STAS. Significant correlation was found between STAS and high-grade patterns. Significant differences were found between OS and DFS estimates of STAS0 and STAS1 cases (5-y-OS: 80.0% vs. 68.4%; 5-y-DFS: 71.1% vs. 57.1%). The presence of STAS was associated with unfavorable prognosis in low and intermediate architectural grades, but not in high-grade. Multivariate analysis revealed that architectural grade (HR_(OS):2.09; HR_(DFS):1.52) and STAS (HR_(OS):1.51; HR_(DFS):1.48) were independent prognostic markers in stage I LA. Architectural grade combined with STAS was superior to other prognostic grades. The combination of architectural grade and STAS proved to be a prognostic factor that is superior to previously introduced grading systems. Patients having low and intermediate grade LAs without STAS might be eligible for sublobar resection.

Novel prognostic model for stratifying survival in stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients

PURPOSE

We combined conventional clinical and pathological characteristics and pathological architectural grading scores to develop a prognostic model to identify a specific group of patients with stage I lung adenocarcinomas with poor survival following surgery.

METHODS

This retrospective study included 198 patients with stage I lung adenocarcinomas recruited from 2004 to 2013. Multivariate analyses were used to confirm independent risk factors, which were checked for internal validity using the bootstrapping method. The prognostic scores, derived from β-coefficients using the Cox regression model, classified patients into high- and low-risk groups. The predictive performance and discriminative ability of the model were assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), concordance index (C-index) and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses.

RESULTS

Three risk factors were identified: T2 (rounding of β-coefficients = 81), necrosis (rounding of β-coefficients = 67), and pathological architectural score of 5-6 (rounding of β-coefficients = 58). The final prognostic score was the sum of points. The derived prognostic scores stratified patients into low- (score ≤ 103) and high- (score > 103) risk groups, with significant differences in 5-year overall survival (high vs. low risk: 49.3% vs. 88.0%, respectively; hazard ratio: 4.55; p < 0.001). The AUC for the proposed model was 0.717. The C-index of the model was 0.693.

CONCLUSION

An integrated prognostic model was developed to discriminate resected stage I adenocarcinoma patients into low- and high-risk groups, which will help clinicians select individual treatment strategies.

Prognostic significance of solid growth in endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

Endometrioid endometrial cancer is the most common histological subtype of endometrial adenocarcinoma. In the FIGO grading scheme, both architectural and nuclear grade are taken into consideration. However, the specific impact of solid growth alone on endometrioid endometrial adenocarcinoma outcome is not well documented. We sought to assess the degree of impact of solid growth on lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI), myometrial invasion, tumor size, FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis (LNM), relapse-free survival (RFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS).

METHODS

Paraffin blocks of 269 patients treated for endometrioid endometrial cancer were retrospectively analyzed with morphometry for solid growth percentages.

RESULTS

A statistically significant cut-off value of 1% solid growth was found for predicting LNM and advanced stage (III or IV), myometrial invasion and LVSI (p < 0.001) and a cut-off value of 8% was found for predicting adverse survival outcome (p < 0.001). The mean DSS was significantly higher in patients with < 6% solid growth compared to patients with 6-50%, 51-75% and > 75% solid growth (p < 0.001). Although, the mean RFS and DSS were lowest in patients with 51-75% solid growth, this did not reach statistical significance in comparison to 6-50% and > 75% (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Although > 75% solid growth was most significantly associated with many of the adverse prognostic factors, this subset did not provide prognostic superiority in predicting adverse survival when compared to subsets within 6-75% solid growth. In conclusion, although no statistically significant difference in survival was found among subdivisions of architectural grades 2 and 3, solid growth, especially ≥ 8%, appeared to be an independent prognostic factor for survival in patients with early-stage endometrioid endometrial cancer.