Metastatic pattern and prognosis in patients with lung adenosquamous carcinoma: A surveillance, epidemiology, and end...

Lung adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) is a rare tumor with high invasive and metastatic potential. Few studies have explored metastatic patterns in patients with advanced-stage ASC.

Patients diagnosed with ASC in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database from 2010 to 2015 were selected. Descriptive statistics were obtained to characterize the metastatic sites of the study participants. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to compare survival curves among patients with different metastatic patterns. Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate risk factors for metastasis.

A total of 858 eligible patients with ASC were enrolled; the mean age was 71.5 years (standard deviation ± 7.8 years). There was a slightly higher proportion of male patients (54.0 %). A total of 63.2 % of patients harbored single-site metastasis (median OS: 5 months), 23.6 % of patients had two-site metastasis (median OS: 4 months), and approximately 10 % of patients harbored three or more sites metastasis (median OS: 3 months). Bone (56.9 %) was the most frequent site of metastasis (median OS: 4 months), followed by lung metastasis (37.6 %, median OS: 5 months), liver metastasis (22.1 %, median OS: 5 months), and brain metastasis (21.4 %, median OS: 4 months). Chemotherapy decreased the risk of death by 70 % (HR = 0.296, 95 % CI 0.241-0.363), 70 % (HR = 0.302, 95 % CI 0.224-0.406), 78 % (HR = 0.218, 95 % CI 0.151-0.314), and 70 % (HR = 0.302, 95 % CI 0.231-0.396) in patients harboring bone, liver, brain and lung metastases, respectively. The brain increased the risk of death by 50 % (HR = 1.501, 95 % CI 1.209-1.865), 64 % (HR = 1.644, 95 % CI 1.126-2.402), and 128 % (HR = 2.284, 95 % CI 1.653-3.157) in patients harboring bone, liver and lung metastases, respectively.

Patients with advanced-stage ASC have unfavorable outcomes. Early detection and aggressive treatment can improve patients outcomes.