Abstract
Background: The role of the pleura in lung cancer dissemination is of paramount importance. This role was highlighted in the International Union Against Cancer staging system (commonly referred to as UICC) staging published in 2009. We tried to assess the prognostic impact of this classification.
Materials and Methods: The present study is about 32 patients with adenocarcinoma who underwent lobectomy or pneumonectomy between 2005 and 2010. Patients with tumors without evidence of pleural invasion, with positive surgical margins or with other histologic subtype than adenocarcinoma were excluded. Overall survival curves were drawn using the Kaplan-Meier method. Differences in survival curves were compared using the log rank test. Differences were considered significant at p<0.05.
Results: The patient group includes 28 men and 4 women with a mean age of 54 years. The 32 patients were classified into stage PL1 in 11 cases, PL2 in 14 cases and PL3 in 7 cases. The comparison of the survival curves showed a significant statistical difference (p=0,49) with a chisquare of 0.46 only between pl1 and pl2 groups.
Conclusion: Our study showed an impact on the prognosis of a lung cancer when tumor cells had infiltrated the elastic layer of the pleura in the PL1 and PL2 diagnostic groups. This fact highlights the necessity for pathologists to use elastic stains in order to use this classification.
Keywords: Lung cancer, pleural invasion, prognosis.
Graphical Abstract
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