Completeness of Resection and Long-Term Survival of Patients Undergoing Resection for Pathologic T3 NSCLC: An International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer Analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Currently, tumors with different histopathologic characteristics and oncologic outcomes comprise the T3 category of the eight edition TNM classification for lung cancers. To better understand the T3 category, we evaluated completeness of resection and long-term survival in patients undergoing resection for T3 NSCLC. METHODS: The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 1999 to 2010 database was queried for patients with pathologic T3N0M0 NSCLC who underwent lobectomy or pneumonectomy. The primary outcome evaluated was overall survival (OS) stratified by T3 descriptors and completeness of resection. RESULTS: Of 1448 patients with T3N0M0 tumors, 1187 (82.0%) had a single descriptor defining them as T3. T3 tumors with chest wall infiltration (CWI) or parietal pleura infiltration (PL3) had the highest rates of incomplete resection (9.8% and 8.4%, respectively), and those classified as T3 by size only had the lowest rate of incomplete resection (2.9%). Individual T3 descriptors were associated with significant differences in OS (p = 0.005). When tumors with similar survival and complete resection rates were grouped, patients with T3 tumors characterized by size or the presence of a separate nodule (SN) in the same lobe had better 5-year OS than patients with tumors characterized by PL3 or CWI (size/SN 60% versus CWI/PL3 53%, p = 0.017) independent of completeness of resection. CONCLUSIONS: Significant differences in 5-year OS were associated with size, SN, PL3, or CWI T3 descriptors. Subdividing pathologic T3N0M0 tumors according to the presence or absence of CWI or PL3 may increase the prognostic accuracy of tumor staging.

Oncologic Outcomes of Patients With Resected T3N0M0 Non-small Cell Lung Cancer.

In the eighth edition TNM staging, the T3N0M0 category represents a heterogeneous group of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). This study aims to compare the oncologic outcomes associated with individual T3 features. We performed a single-institution, retrospective analysis of 280 consecutive patients with pT3N0M0 NSCLC. Multivariate regression models were used to estimate associations of clinical factors with oncologic outcomes. The patients were grouped according to their T3 features into 4 prognostic groups: chest wall infiltration (CWI-PG), largest diameter >5 cm and ≤7 cm (Size-PG), presence of a satellite nodule (SN-PG), and all other T3 features. Overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were estimated using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard analyses. Tumors were most often classified as T3N0M0 by size (156 patients, 55.7%), and the highest rate of incomplete resection occurred in patients with CWI (n = 7, 25.9%). In multivariate analysis, CWI (hazard ratio [HR] 2.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.36, 4.44), incomplete resection (HR 3.01, 95% CI 1.29, 7.05), and age >65 (HR 1.6; 95% CI 1.08, 2.38) were independently associated with worse OS, and female sex was associated with better OS (HR 0.6, 95% CI 0.42, 0.87). The CWI-PG had poorer OS when compared with each of the other prognostic groups (P < 0.05), and the Size-PG had inferior OS when compared with the SN-PG (P = 0.039). This single-center study demonstrated significant differences in OS and PFS between patients with different T3 classifying features and suggest that further subdivision of the T3 category should be considered.