8th Edition Tumor, Node, and Metastasis T-Stage Prognosis Discrepancies: Solid Component Diameter Predicts Prognosis Better than Invasive Component Diameter

The biggest change in the 8th edition of the tumor, lymph node, and metastasis (TNM) classification is the recommendation of the solid component diameter and invasive size for determining the clinical and pathological T-factor, respectively. Here, we validated new proposals for the Lung Cancer TNM classification’s revision and compared clinical and pathological T-stages. We retrospectively analyzed 177 cases of non-small cell lung cancers without lymph node metastasis, and involving complete resection, that occurred in our department between January 2017 and March 2019. We reviewed the overall tumor diameter, solid component diameter, and clinical T-factor on computed tomography (CT), and the pathological tumor diameter, pathological invasion diameter, pathological T-factor, and prognosis. The difference between the pathological invasive size and solid size on CT was within 5 mm in 99 cases (56%). At a two-year recurrence-free survival rate, the clinical T-stage demonstrated a better prognostic outcome than the pathological T-stage. Despite including the benign findings, the solid component diameter was better correlated with prognosis than the invasive size. Therefore, in cases of discrepancies of clinically and pathologically detected tumor size, the solid CT size should also be used for the pathological T classification.