Background: Several studies have suggested risk factors for poor survival in stage IB non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, these factors are not definite indicators of adjuvant chemotherapy for stage IB cancer, and most of them can be used to consider adjuvant chemotherapy. We aimed to determine the clinicopathologic factors and assess whether c-MET is a prognostic factor in stage IB NSCLC patients who have undergone surgery. Additionally, we determined the relevance of the factors and the recurrence pattern in these patients.
Patients and methods: This study included 115 patients who underwent resection of pathologic stage IB NSCLC between January 2005 and December 2013. We retrospectively reviewed the clinicopathologic data and performed immunohistochemical analysis for c-MET. Recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) were evaluated according to clinicopathologic factors and c-MET expression.
Results: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and c-MET overexpression were significantly associated with poor RFS. A large tumor with visceral pleural invasion (VPI) or LVI, moderate/poor differentiation with LVI, and VPI with LVI were negative prognostic factors for RFS and CSS. c-MET overexpression with a large tumor, VPI, or LVI was an independent prognostic factor for poor RFS and CSS, and LVI was a significant factor for distant recurrence.
Conclusion: LVI and c-MET overexpression might be associated with poor prognosis in stage IB NSCLC patients. Additionally, survival might be poor in stage IB patients with multiple pathologic risk factors. Moreover, there is a high possibility of distant recurrence in patients with LVI.
Keywords: NSCLC; Prognosis; Recurrence; Risk factors; c-Met proteins.
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