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Effect of histologically verified TNM stage on disease control in treated small cell carcinoma of the lung
Author(s) -
Meyer John A.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19850415)55:8<1747::aid-cncr2820550822>3.0.co;2-h
Subject(s) - medicine , stage (stratigraphy) , lung , carcinoma , disease , radiology , oncology , surgery , paleontology , biology
Pretreatment classification of patients with small cell carcinoma of the lung into categories of “limited” and “extensive” disease is inadequate; it does not identify the few having a good prognosis for disease control. Available reports from the literature were analyzed for (1) histologically verified TNM stage; (2) adequate treatment by current standards; and (3) number and percent of patients remaining in complete remission at 30 months after the start of treatment. Long‐surviving patients by histologically verified stage were as follows: Stage I, 5 of 6 patients (83%); Stage II, 3 of 4 (75%); T3 without N2 or M1, 2 of 4 (50%); and N2 with any T value but without M1, 1 of 16 (6.2%). Long survivors with most distant involvement in the supraclavicular nodes were the following: ipsilateral, 3 of 22 (13.6%); contralateral, 2 of 40 (5%). Histologically verified M1 elsewhere allowed less than 1% long survivors. Indirect evidence of M1 by abnormal bone scan allowed less than 5%. Contrary to general usage, TNM staging of patients with small cell carcinoma of the lung promises to correlate closely with the probability of long disease‐free survival.