Outcomes of lung cancers manifesting as nonsolid nodules

• Published in: Lung cancer (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Vol. 97; pp. 35 - 42
• Main Authors: Yip, Rowena, Wolf, Andrea, Tam, Kathleen, Taioli, Emanuela, Olkin, Ingram, Flores, Raja M., Yankelevitz, David F., Henschke, Claudia I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ireland Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.07.2016
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma - mortality; Adenocarcinoma - pathology; Adenocarcinoma - surgery; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Hematology, Oncology and Palliative Medicine; Humans; Lung neoplasm; Lung Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Lung Neoplasms - mortality; Lung Neoplasms - pathology; Lung Neoplasms - surgery; Male; Mass Screening; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules - diagnostic imaging; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules - mortality; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules - pathology; Multiple Pulmonary Nodules - surgery; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - methods; Pulmonary/Respiratory; Screening; Surgery; Surveillance; Survival; Survival Rate; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; LN; MIA; VDT; AIS; IQR; Survival; GGO; NSNs; CT; MLND; Screening; Surveillance; Surgery; Lung neoplasm; PGGO; Nonsolid nodules; Adenocarcinoma-in-situ; Computed tomography; Mediastinal lymph node dissection; Ground-glass opacities; Lymph node; Pure ground-glass opacities; Minimally invasive adenocarcinoma; Interquartile range; Volume doubling time
• ISSN: 0169-5002; 1872-8332; 1872-8332
• DOI: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2016.04.005

•Lung cancers manifesting as NSNs do not metastasize to LNs or other organs.•Approximately 70% of resected NSN cancers are AIS or MIA.•All Stage I adenocarcinomas with 100% long-term lung-cancer specific survival.•NSNs still need to be follow-up annually for development of a solid component.•Can be followed for growth yearly as they are slow-growing cancers if diagnosed. This is a comprehensive review and re-analysis of available literature to assess the outcome of lung cancer presenting as nonsolid nodules (NSNs), a more indolent form of cancer. PubMed and EMBASE were searched for articles reporting on CT-detected lung cancers manifesting as NSNs published in English on or before July 17, 2015. Only studies including clinicopathologic data, lung cancer-specific survival, or overall survival were included. Data extraction was performed by three independent reviewers using prespecified criteria. Twenty-four articles from 5 countries met criteria and they included 704 subjects with 712 lung cancers manifesting as NSNs. Each article reported from 2 to 100 lung cancer cases with a median follow up of 18–51 months. All NSNs were Stage I adenocarcinoma without pathologic nodal involvement upon resection, except for one case in which the NSN progressed to become part-solid nodule after 6 years of follow-up. The five-year lung cancer-specific survival rate was 100%. These findings suggest an indolent course for lung cancers manifesting as NSNs.