Impact of High-Grade Patterns in Early-Stage Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Multicentric Analysis

• DOI: 10.1007/s00408-022-00561-y
• Publication Date: 2022-08-21T10:02:51Z
• Authors: Pietro Bertoglio; Vittorio Aprile; Luigi Ventura; Maria Cattoni; Dania Nachira; Filippo Lococo; Maria Rodriguez P...; Francesco Guerrera; Fabrizio Minervini; Giulia Querzoli; Giovanni Bocchialini; Diana Bacchin; Francesca Franzi; Guido Rindi; Salvatore Bellafiore; Federico Femia; Giuseppe Salvator...; Piergiorgio Solli; Peter Kestenholz; Enrico Ruffini; Massimiliano Paci; Stefano Margaritora; Andrea Selenito I...; Marco Lucchi; Letizia Gnetti; Alberto Claudio T...
• Keywords: Lung adenocarcinoma; Adenocarcinoma subtype; Male; Lung Neoplasms; Lung Cancer; TNM staging; Adenocarcinoma of Lung; Adenocarcinoma; Prognosis; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Adenocarcinoma subtypes; Adenocarcinoma subtypes; Lung adenocarcinoma; Lung cancer; TNM staging; Humans; Female; Lung cancer; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; Neoplasm Staging; Retrospective Studies

Abstract Objective The presence of micropapillary and solid adenocarcinoma patterns leads to a worse survival and a significantly higher tendency to recur. This study aims to assess the impact of pT descriptor combined with the presence of high-grade components on long-term outcomes in early-stage lung adenocarcinomas.

Methods We retrospectively collected data of consecutive resected pT1-T3N0 lung adenocarcinoma from nine European Thoracic Centers. All patients who underwent a radical resection with lymph-node dissection between 2014 and 2017 were included. Differences in Overall Survival (OS) and Disease-Free Survival (DFS) and possible prognostic factors associated with outcomes were evaluated also after performing a propensity score matching to compare tumors containing non-high-grade and high-grade patterns.

Results Among 607 patients, the majority were male and received a lobectomy. At least one high-grade histological pattern was seen in 230 cases (37.9%), of which 169 solid and 75 micropapillary. T1a-b-c without high-grade pattern had a significant better prognosis compared to T1a-b-c with high-grade pattern (p = 0.020), but the latter had similar OS compared to T2a (p = 0.277). Concurrently, T1a-b-c without micropapillary or solid patterns had a significantly better DFS compared to those with high-grade patterns (p = 0.034), and it was similar to T2a (p = 0.839). Multivariable analysis confirms the role of T descriptor according to high-grade pattern both for OS (p = 0.024; HR 1.285 95% CI 1.033–1.599) and DFS (p = 0.003; HR 1.196, 95% CI 1.054–1.344, respectively). These results were confirmed after the propensity score matching analysis.

Conclusions pT1 lung adenocarcinomas with a high-grade component have similar prognosis of pT2a tumors.