Prognostic factors in patients undergoing pulmonary resection for sarcomatoid carcinomas of the lung

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinomas are very rare lung neoplasms, and no consensus exists regarding their optimal treatment. The prognosis of sarcomatoid carcinomas has been reported to be unfavorable compared with non-small-cell lung cancers; however, prognostic factors in patients undergoing surgery for sarcomatoid carcinomas remain unclear. AIMS: To analyze clinicopathologic prognostic factors and survival outcomes in patients who underwent surgery for pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cross-sectional study. METHODS: We designed a retrospective cross-sectional study in patients who underwent surgery for pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinomas and statistically analyzed the prognostic factors regarding clinicopathologic features with respect to survival outcomes. RESULTS: We had a total of 44 patients with sarcomatoid carcinoma who had pulmonary resection. Sex distribution was 34 (77%) males and 10 (22.7%) females, which was determined by declaration. The mean age of patients was 57.3 ± 16 years with a median of 60 years. The 5-year progression-free survival and overall survival rates were 59% and 58%, respectively. The 5-year survival rates were significantly different for tumors > 5 cm (P = 0.044), tumorstatus (T) (P=0.016), lymph node status (N) (P=0.005), and pathologic tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (P = 0.0001 ). However, histologic subtype (P = 0.628) and adjuvant treatment (P = 0.804) did not have any significant effect on survival. Similarly, the significant prognostic factors in univariate analysis were tumor size (P = 0.085), T status (P = 0.005), N status (P = 0.028), and pathologic TNM stage (P = 0.0001). Multivariate analysis showed only T status (P = 0.058), N status (P = 0.018), and pathologic TNM stage (P = 0.019) as independent prognostic factors, with statistical power of 87%, 43.1% and 21.2%. CONCLUSION: Surgery appears to be an optimal treatment with favorable outcomes for patients with pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma. Patients with small tumors at earlier stages are very likely to benefit from surgery, regardless of histologic subtype.