Visceral pleural invasion impacts the prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer: A meta-analysis

• Published in: European journal of surgical oncology 2016-11, Vol.42 (11), p.1707-1713
• Main Authors: Liu, Quan-Xing, MD, Deng, Xu-Feng, MD, Zhou, Dong, MD, Li, Jing-Meng, MD, Min, Jia-Xin, PhD, MD, Dai, Ji-Gang, PhD, MD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - diagnosis; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - mortality; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung - pathology; Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Medicine; Humans; Lung Neoplasms - diagnosis; Lung Neoplasms - mortality; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Non-small cell lung cancer; Pleura - pathology; Prognosis; Publication Bias; Surgery; TNM classification; Visceral pleural invasion
• ISSN: 0748-7983; 1532-2157
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejso.2016.03.012

Abstract Background In the 7th tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) classification, T1 tumors with visceral pleural invasion (VPI) are upgraded to T2a. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prognostic impact of VPI among patients with NSCLC and to propose a method of incorporating VPI into T-status classification in future staging systems. Methods A systematic electronic search was conducted from each database’s date of inception to October 2015. The included studies were selected according to predefined inclusion criteria. The hazard ratio (HR) was used as the outcome measure for data combining. Results A total of 22 studies, published from 2003 to 2015, were included in this meta-analysis. In the subgroup analysis, we identified that VPI was a poor prognostic factor for tumor size ≤2 cm (2.34 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.55-3.54; P