Predicting survival in patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer: Validating the extent of metastasis

Abstract

Purpose A number of factors related to overall survival (OS) have been addressed in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study was conducted to determine the impact of whole-body metastatic regions on survival outcome in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC. Materials and Methods Between March 2005 and February 2011, 112 eligible patients with newly confirmed stage IV non-squamous NSCLC, available for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status 18-21 analysis, and accessible for the determination of pretreatment whole-body metastatic regions were enrolled in this retrospective study. The total number of synchronous metastatic regions was scored according to the following disease sites: abdomen/pelvis, lung to lung/pulmonary lymphangitic spread, bone, pleura/pleural effusion/pericardial effusion, neck/axillary lymph nodes, other soft tissue, brain. Results The median age of the cohort was 65 years (range, 31 to 88 years). The median whole-body metastatic score was 2 (range, 1 to 6), and bone and lung to lung were the most common metastatic sites. EGFR mutations were observed in 40 (35.7%) patients with a deletion in exon 19 and Leu858Arg mutation in exon 21 being detected in 16 (40.0%) and 19 (47.5%) patients, respectively. Multivariate analysis for OS revealed that treatment factors (p=0.005), performance status (p=0.006), whole-body metastatic score (p<0.001), and EGFR mutation status (p=0.095) were significantly or marginally associated with OS. Conclusion The results of the present study demonstrated that whole-body metastatic extent strongly affects survival outcome, even after adjustment for other significant variables in advanced non-squamous NSCLC. The clinical validity of more curative multimodal approaches in cohorts with limited metastases remains to be explored. © 2013 by the Korean Cancer Association.