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Published on: January 5, 2017
Behaviour and survival of high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas of the lung
J M Naranjo Gómez1, J J Gómez Román
1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Servicio de Cirugía Torácica, Avda. de Valdecilla 25, Santander (Cantabria), Spain. jomanago1@hotmail.com
Introduction:
Large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is an aggressive variant of large-cell carcinoma of the lung, which has poor survival in most series, resembling that of small-cell lung carcinoma. We report our retrospective assessment of surgically-resected cases of both tumours.
Methods:
33 large-cell neuroendocrine carcinomas and 16 peripheral small-cell lung carcinomas were reassessed retrospectively. Survival rates of both tumours in surgically-resected cases were calculated and compared using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Log Rank test, respectively.
Results:
In large-cell neuroendocrine carcinomas, there were 25 patients with pathologic stage I, 4 with pathologic stage II and 4 with pathologic stage III. In small-cell lung carcinomas, there were 6 patients with pathologic stage I, 3 with pathologic stage II and 7 with pathologic stage III. 12% of large-cell neuroendocrine carcinomas and 62.5% of small-cell lung carcinomas were of advanced disease. The mean follow-up was 89 months. The actuarial survival for the 2 groups was not significantly different.
Conclusion:
Large-cell neuroendocrine carcinomas of the lung have poor prognosis even in early stages, with survival rates similar to that of small-cell lung carcinomas.