Transbronchial lung cryobiopsy for the diagnosis of lepidic-predominant lung adenocarcinoma

Advanced pneumonic type of lung adenocarcinoma: survival predictors and treatment efficacy of the tumor

PURPOSE

To retrospectively explore the survival predictors and treatment efficacy of advanced pneumonic-type lung adenocarcinoma (P-ADC).

METHODS

Retrospective analysis of clinical data and survival follow-up was undertaken on 41 patients with advanced P-ADC from January 1, 2009, to April 30, 2019. Analysis on tumor biomarkers such as carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and the cytokeratin-19-fragment (Cyfra21-1) were undertaken. The patients in this study were divided into three groups based on usage of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI): TKI therapy group (including combination with chemotherapy), non-TKI therapy group (chemotherapy alone), and palliative care group.

RESULTS

More than half of the patients had higher levels of tumor biomarkers and the incidence of NSE was highest (81.8%), followed by CEA (74.4%) and Cyfra21-1 (74.1%). All patients had abnormal findings on chest computed tomography and with adenocarcinoma pathology. The overall survival (OS) time was 10.4 months in TKI group, 8.8 months in the non-TKI group, and 2.1 months in the palliative care group. Patients with higher level of serum Cyfra21-1 had insignificantly shorter survival time compared to those with normal Cyfra21-1 (p = 0.067). TKI therapy and non-TKI therapy provided a better prognosis prediction compared to palliative care. TKI therapy improved prognosis compared to non-TKI therapy. The comprehensive based TKI therapy provided improved OS vs the non-TKI therapy.

CONCLUSION

TKI-based therapy could improve the prognosis and OS for advanced P-ADC. This study recommends the analysis of EGFR mutations for all patients with advanced P-ADC.