Background: Surgical excision biopsy remains the only reliable option in most cases of indeterminate pulmonary nodules, particularly in cancer survivors for whom surgery provides local control of pulmonary metastasis and the best chance of cure for early-stage lung cancer. Nevertheless, unnecessary surgeries remain a concern and the prognosis of newly diagnosed lung cancer might be influenced by the history of previous malignancy. We aimed to analyze the outcomes of resected indeterminate pulmonary nodules in patients with and without previous malignancy, and the impact of prior cancer history on survival and recurrence in stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.
Methods: We retrospectively studied 176 resected indeterminate pulmonary nodules from 169 patients (58% with and 42% without previous cancer). Recurrence and overall survival (OS) were analyzed in newly diagnosed stage I NSCLC using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard models.
Results: The rate of benign lesions was 15.3% (9.6% in the previous cancer group and 23.6% in the no previous cancer group). In stage I NSCLC patients (n=86), previous malignancy was associated with recurrence (P<0.001) but not OS (P=0.23). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and visceral pleural invasion were associated with impaired OS and recurrence. Mediastinal lymph node removal was associated with better OS.
Conclusions: The rate of benign resections among indeterminate pulmonary nodules in the no-previous cancer group more than doubled that of the previous cancer group and, in newly diagnosed stage I NSCLC patients, recurrence was independently associated with prior cancer. Therefore, in this setting, a history of previous malignancy should be taken into consideration when identifying patients at risk of tumor recurrence.
Keywords: Indeterminate pulmonary nodules; cancer survivors; early-stage lung cancer; overall survival (OS); recurrence.
2024 Journal of Thoracic Disease. All rights reserved.