Effects of pre-operative biopsy on recurrence and survival in stage I lung adenocarcinoma patients in China

BACKGROUND: Whether pre-operative biopsy affects post-operative recurrence and metastasis of lung cancer patients is still controversial. METHODS: In order to clarify these disputes, we collected relevant literature to conduct a meta-analysis. To validate the results of the meta-analysis, we retrospectively analysed 575 patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical resection at our centre from 2010 to 2018 using propensity score matching and competing risk models. RESULTS: 5509 lung cancer patients from 11 articles were included in the meta-analysis. Summary analysis showed that the total recurrence rate of the biopsy group was higher than that of the nonbiopsy group (risk ratio 1.690, 95% CI 1.220–2.330; p=0.001). After propensity score matching, we found that there was no significant correlation between biopsy and total recurrence (risk ratio 1.070, 95% CI 0.540–2.120; p=0.850). In our cohort, of 575 stage I lung adenocarcinomas, 113 (19.7%) patients underwent pre-operative biopsy. During a median (interquartile range) follow-up of 71 (57–93) months, multivariable analyses showed pre-operative biopsy in the overall observation cohort (subdistribution hazard ratio (SHR) 1.522, 95% CI 0.997–2.320; p=0.051) and in the propensity score-matched cohort (SHR 1.134, 95% CI 0.709–1.810; p=0.600) was not significantly correlated with the risk of recurrence and metastasis. Moreover, the pre-operative biopsy did not affect disease-free survival (SHR 0.853, 95% CI 0.572–1.273; p=0.438) or overall survival (SHR 0.647, 95% CI 0.352–1.189; p=0.161). CONCLUSION: Pre-operative biopsy might not increase the risk of recurrence and metastasis, suggesting that these procedures might be safe for patients with stage I lung adenocarcinoma whose diagnosis is difficult to determine before surgery.