Early Distant Recurrence in Patients With Resected Stage I Lung Cancer: A Case Series of Blast Metastasis

Operable stage I non small-cell lung cancer portends a positive prognosis. However, the descriptive characteristics of patients who have developed early distant recurrence have remained poorly defined. Most of these patients with early distant recurrence were elderly smokers with adenocarcinoma. The 5-year survival from recurrence and surgery was 13.2%. Our 5-year survival was greater than the previously reported 5-year survival for stage IVb (0%). Background: The standard of care in the management of stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been anatomic lung resection with multistation lymph node sampling of >= 10 lymph nodes. The 5-year survival for NSCLC has ranged from 73% to 93% (for stage IB and stage IA, respectively) and will be more favorable for patients with fewer comorbidities and those with a higher state of premorbid functioning and who undergo surgical resection. Despite the positive prognosis for operable stage I NSCLC, a subset of patients will develop metastatic disease within as few as 12 months after resection. Using an institutional database, we have presented the data from 68 patients who had developed distant metastatic recurrence after resection of pathologic stage I NSCLC within 1 year after surgery. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted of a prospectively maintained intuitional database. The final cohort included patients with pathologic stage I NSCLC who had undergone anatomic resection but had subsequently presented with multiple sites of distant recurrence within 1 year. The study period extended from 2003 to 2020. Patients with broad local recurrence or recurrence at a single distant site were excluded. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate the 5-year survival. Results: A total of 2827 patients had undergone surgical resection for stage I NSCLC during the 17-year period and 68 met the criteria for inclusion. Most of the patients (n = 48) were smokers, and the dominant histologic type was adenocarcinoma (n = 37). After recurrence, 22 patients (33%) had undergone chemoradiotherapy and 19 (28%) had received chemotherapy alone. The mean and median overall survival were 23.7 and 14 months, respectively. The 5-year survival from recurrence and surgery were both 13.2%. Conclusions: Limited data are available on the risk factors for early metastasis after resected stage I NSCLC. The results from our cohort have demonstrated poor survival after recurrence. These data might be the basis for determining a phenotype for patients prone to early widespread metastasis despite seemingly curative surgical resection. (C) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Operable stage I non-small-cell lung cancer has a positive prognosis, but some patients may develop early distant recurrence with poor survival outcomes. Elderly smokers with adenocarcinoma are at higher risk for early distant recurrence. The 5-year survival rate after recurrence and surgery is 13.2%.