The Impact of Lymphovascular Invasion on Prognosis and Survival in Operated Lung Cancer Patients

OpenAlex İngilizce

Objective: Despite many improvements in imaging techniques and oncologic therapy in recent years, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Currently, the only curative treatment for lung cancer is still lung resection. However, patients who undergo surgery in the early stages of lung cancer are still at risk of recurrence or metastasis. The pathologic stage after resection is the most important prognostic factor for survival and forms the basis of guideline recommendations for adjuvant therapies. Lymphovascular invasion(LVI), one of the parameters evaluated in pathological examination, is a key entity in terms of tumor dissemination and carries critical importance in influencing disease recurrence, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and disease-free survival. In this study, we investigated the relationship between LVI and clinical and histopathologic parameters in patients who underwent lung resection for primary lung cancer and evaluated its effect on prognosis and survival. Materials and Methods: 111 patients who underwent surgical resection for lung cancer in a fourteen-year period were included in the study. Histopathological examinations of the resected surgical specimens were performed and all histopathological parameters were recorded. Data concerning demographic characteristics and life expectancy of the patients were obtained from archival records. Results: Majority of the study population of 111 cases mostly(95.5%) consisted of male patients with a mean(±SD) age of 62.24±8.44 years. Approximately 13% of the patients were still alive. Most frequently(63.06%) lobectomies were.performed. LVI was detected at a higher rate in patients with squamous cell carcinomas(p=0.005). The incidence of LVI increased as both T factor(p=0.029) and N factor(p=0.000) increased. Regardless of tumor type, LVI was more frequenty seen in advanced stages of the disease(p=0.005). There was no significant correlation between LVI and survival(p=0.916). Conclusion: LVI is the first step of tumor invasion and metastasis and correlates with recurrence and survival rates for some cancer types such as gynecologic and head and neck tumors. Therefore, LVI is a promising area to be studied in future clinical trials on lung cancer. We believe that the presence of LVI in the tumor can be used as a parameter to offer adjuvant therapies to patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer.