Edited by: Massimo Di Maio, University of Turin, Italy
Reviewed by: Rachel E. Sanborn, Providence Portland Medical Center, United States; Xin Wang, Technical University of Munich, Germany; Qi Sun, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany; Yuliang Hu, Mayo Clinic, United States
This article was submitted to Thoracic Oncology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Oncology
†These authors have contributed equally to this work
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths mainly attributable to metastasis, especially extrathoracic metastasis. This large-cohort research is aimed to explore metastatic profiles in different histological types of lung cancer, as well as to assess clinicopathological and survival significance of diverse metastatic lesions. Lung cancer cases were extracted and enrolled from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. χ2-tests were conducted to make comparisons of metastatic distribution among different histological types and odds ratios were calculated to analyze co-occurrence relationships between different metastatic lesions. Kaplan–Meier methods were performed to analyze survival outcomes according to different metastatic sites and Cox regression models were conducted to identify independent prognostic factors. In total, we included 159,241 lung cancer cases with detailed metastatic status and complete follow-up information. In order to understand their metastatic patterns, we elucidated the following points in this research: (1) Comparing the frequencies of different metastatic lesions in different histological types. The frequency of bone metastasis was highest in adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, LCLC and NSCLC/NOS, while liver was the most common metastatic site in SCLC. (2) Elaborating the tendency of combined metastases. Bi-site metastases occurred more common than tri-site and tetra-site metastases. And several metastatic sites, such as bone and liver, intended to co-metastasize preferentially. (3) Clarifying the prognostic significance of single-site and bi-site metastases. All single-site metastases were independent prognostic factors and co-metastases ended up with even worse survival outcomes. Thus, our findings would be beneficial for research design and clinical practice.
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Lung cancer is one of the most common malignancies and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths (
To date, tumor hallmarks, metastatic patterns and prognostic outcomes differ greatly among different histological types of lung cancer (
Tumor, regional lymph node and metastasis (TNM) staging system was universally applied for prognostic prediction and therapeutic guidance. According to the 8th TNM staging by American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC), M1a was defined as intrathoracic metastases including contralateral lung nodules, pleural metastases and pericardial effusion, and M1b or M1c were defined as single or multiple extrathoracic metastases (
However, extrathoracic metastatic patterns of lung cancer and their diversity in different histological types are unclear and need further clarification. And prognostic outcomes of diverse extrathoracic sites need to be investigated. Thus, this retrospective, large-cohort study is aimed to explore metastatic profiles in different histological types of lung cancer, as well as to assess clinicopathological and survival significance of diverse metastatic lesions.
We performed a retrospective, population-based research by extracting data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) national database. Cases were included in this research on the basis of the following inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Inclusion criteria: (1) Diagnosis of lung cancer was made pathologically between the year 2010–2014; (2) Lung cancer was the first primary malignancy; (3) Detailed information about metastatic status was complete.
Exclusion criteria: (1) Age under 18 years old; (2) Metastatic status was unknown; (3) Follow-up data was missing; (4) Information about histological type was unknown.
Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patients' demographic, clinicopathological, and therapeutic variables in different histological subgroups. We conducted χ2-tests to make comparisons of metastatic distribution among different histological types. Odds ratios were calculated to analyze co-occurrence relationships between different metastatic lesions. Kaplan–Meier methods were performed to analyze overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) according to different metastatic sites were conducted to identify independent prognostic factors. Two-sided
According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, we finally enrolled 159,241 cases diagnosed with lung cancer. Detailed selection flowchart was illustrated in
Flowchart of patient selection in this study.
Baseline clinical characteristics of lung cancer patients in SEER database.
Adenocarcinoma | 59,090 (78.5) | 16,141 (21.5) | <0.001 | 63,943 (85.0) | 11,288 (15.0) | <0.001 | 68,647 (91.2) | 6,584 (8.8) | <0.001 | 70,399 (93.6) | 4,832 (6.4) | <0.001 |
Squamous cell carcinoma | 33,033 (88.8) | 4,146 (11.2) | 35,061 (94.3) | 2,118 (5.7) | 34,874 (93.8) | 2,305 (6.2) | 35,737 (88.0) | 1,442 (12.0) | ||||
LCLC | 2,322 (82.0) | 510 (18.0) | 2,342 (82.7) | 490 (17.3) | 2,441 (86.2) | 391 (13.8) | 2,601 (91.8) | 231 (8.2) | ||||
SCLC | 17,427 (76.7) | 5,282 (23.3) | 18.913 (83.3) | 3,796 (16.7) | 15,549 (68.5) | 7,160 (31.5) | 20,308 (89.4) | 2,401 (10.6) | ||||
NSCLC/NOS | 16,749 (78.7) | 4,541 (21.3) | 17,736 (83.3) | 3,554 (16.7) | 18,341 (86.1) | 2,949 (13.9) | 19,803 (93.0) | 1,487 (7.0) | ||||
Male | 66,188 (79.2) | 17,382 (20.8) | <0.001 | 72,491 (86.7) | 11,079 (13.3) | 0.295 | 72,929 (87.3) | 10,641 (12.7) | <0.001 | 77,683 (93.0) | 5,887 (7.0) | <0.001 |
Female | 62,433 (82.5) | 13,238 (17.5) | 65,504 (86.6) | 10,167 (13.4) | 66,923 (88.4) | 8,748 (11.6) | 71,165 (94.0) | 4,506 (6.0) | ||||
<50 | 5,129 (74.9) | 1,717 (25.1) | <0.001 | 5,361 (78.3) | 1,485 (21.7) | <0.001 | 5,936 (86.7) | 910 (13.3) | <0.001 | 6,156 (89.9) | 690 (10.1) | <0.001 |
51–65 | 39,240 (77.7) | 11,276 (22.3) | 41,365 (81.9) | 9,151 (18.1) | 43,568 (86.2) | 6,948 (13.8) | 46,254 (91.6) | 4,262 (8.4) | ||||
≥65 | 84,252 (82.7) | 17,627 (17.3) | 91,269 (89.6) | 10610 (10.4) | 90,348 (88.7) | 11,531 (11.3) | 96,438 (94.7) | 5,441 (5.3) | ||||
Married | 62,526 (79.8) | 15,860 (20.2) | <0.001 | 67,634 (86.3) | 10,752 (13.7) | <0.001 | 68,786 (87.8) | 9,600 (12.2) | 0.625 | 73,147 (93.3) | 5,239 (6.7) | 0.035 |
Unmarried | 60,049 (81.7) | 13,420 (18.3) | 63,833 (86.9) | 9,636 (13.1) | 64,562 (87.9) | 8,907 (12.1) | 68,772 (93.6) | 4,697 (6.4) | ||||
Unknown | 6,046 (81.9) | 1,340 (18.1) | 6,528 (88.4) | 858 (11.6) | 6,504 (88.1) | 882 (11.9) | 6,929 (93.8) | 457 (6.2) | ||||
White | 103,885 (80.9) | 24,502 (19.1) | <0.001 | 111,722 (87.0) | 16,665 (13.0) | <0.001 | 112,357 (87.5) | 16,030 (12.5) | <0.001 | 120,108 (93.6) | 8,279 (6.4) | 0.009 |
Black | 15,612 (81.5) | 3,555 (18.5) | 16,447 (85.8) | 2,720 (14.2) | 17,055 (89.0) | 2,112 (11.0) | 17,889 (93.3) | 1,278 (6.7) | ||||
Others | 9,124 (78.1) | 2,563 (21.9) | 9,826 (84.1) | 1,861 (15.9) | 10,440 (89.3) | 1,247 (10.7) | 10,851 (92.8) | 836 (7.2) | ||||
I | 7,240 (94.3) | 434 (5.7) | <0.001 | 7,405 (96.5) | 269 (3.5) | <0.001 | 7,521 (98.0) | 153 (2.0) | <0.001 | 7,573 (98.7) | 101 (1.3) | <0.001 |
II | 23,464 (90.6) | 2,444 (9.4) | 24,237 (93.6) | 1,671 (6.4) | 25,041 (96.7) | 867 (3.3) | 25,312 (97.7) | 596 (2.3) | ||||
III | 33,521 (83.9) | 6,441 (16.1) | 34,842 (87.2) | 5,120 (12.8) | 36,528 (91.4) | 3,434 (8.6) | 37,754 (94.5) | 2,208 (5.5) | ||||
IV | 3,901 (80.4) | 951 (19.6) | 4,121 (84.9) | 731 (15.1) | 3,836 (79.1) | 1,016 (20.9) | 4,434 (91.4) | 418 (8.6) | ||||
Unknown | 60,495 (74.8) | 20,350 (25.2) | 67,390 (83.4) | 13,455 (16.6) | 66,926 (82.8) | 13,919 (17.2) | 73,775 (91.3) | 7,070 (8.7) | ||||
<2.0 | 17,612 (89.1) | 2,160 (10.9) | <0.001 | 18,206 (92.1) | 1,566 (7.9) | <0.001 | 18,536 (93.7) | 1,236 (6.3) | <0.001 | 19,025 (96.2) | 747 (3.8) | <0.001 |
2.0–4.9 | 51,049 (82.2) | 11,029 (17.8) | 54,351 (87.6) | 7,727 (12.4) | 55,967 (90.2) | 6,111 (9.8) | 58,838 (94.8) | 3,240 (5.2) | ||||
5.0–9.9 | 32,257 (79.1) | 8,511 (20.9) | 34,305 (84.1) | 6,463 (15.9) | 35,269 (86.5) | 5,499 (13.5) | 37,835 (92.8) | 2,933 (7.2) | ||||
≥10.0 | 3,844 (79.8) | 974 (20.2) | 4,067 (85.4) | 751 (15.6) | 4,123 (85.6) | 695 (14.4) | 4,383 (91.0) | 435 (9.0) | ||||
Unknown | 23,859 (75.0) | 7,946 (25.0) | 27,066 (85.1) | 4,739 (14.9) | 25,957 (81.6) | 5,848 (18.4) | 28,767 (90.4) | 3,038 (9.6) | ||||
N0 | 53,156 (90.4) | 5,630 (9.6) | <0.001 | 54,430 (92.6) | 4,356 (7.4) | <0.001 | 55,846 (95.0) | 2,940 (5.0) | <0.001 | 57,998 (98.7) | 788 (1.3) | <0.001 |
N1 | 10,999 (82.5) | 2,337 (17.5) | 11,604 (87.0) | 1,732 (13.0) | 11,952 (89.6) | 1,384 (10.4) | 12,824 (96.2) | 512 (3.8) | ||||
N2 | 44,427 (75.6) | 14,321 (24.4) | 48,970 (83.4) | 9,778 (16.6) | 48,861 (83.2) | 9,887 (16.8) | 54,392 (92.6) | 4,356 (7.4) | ||||
N3 | 15,408 (70.4) | 6,479 (29.6) | 17,707 (80.9) | 4,180 (19.1) | 18,009 (82.3) | 3,878 (17.7) | 17,249 (79.6) | 4,458 (20.4) | ||||
NX | 4,631 (71.4) | 1,853 (28.6) | 5,284 (81.5) | 1,200 (18.5) | 5,184 (80.0) | 1,300 (20.0) | 6,205 (95.7) | 279 (4.3) | ||||
Yes | 32,518 (98.8) | 400 (1.2) | <0.001 | 32,346 (98.3) | 572 (1.7) | <0.001 | 32,760 (99.5) | 158 (0.5) | <0.001 | 32,783 (99.6) | 135 (0.4) | <0.001 |
No | 96,103 (76.1) | 30,220 (23.9) | 105,649 (83.6) | 20,674 (16.4) | 107,092 (84.8) | 19,231 (15.2) | 116,065 (91.9) | 10,258 (8.1) | ||||
Yes | 58,803 (77.5) | 17,117 (22.5) | <0.001 | 64,268 (84.7) | 11,652 (15.3) | <0.001 | 65,583 (86.4) | 10,337 (13.6) | <0.001 | 69,507 (91.6) | 6,413 (8.4) | <0.001 |
No | 69,818 (83.8) | 13,503 (16.2) | 73,727 (88.5) | 9,594 (11.5) | 74,269 (89.1) | 9,052 (10.9) | 79,341 (95.2) | 3,980 (4.8) | ||||
Yes | 50,966 (76.8) | 15,387 (23.2) | <0.001 | 50,744 (76.5) | 15,609 (23.5) | <0.001 | 59,939 (90.3) | 6,414 (9.7) | <0.001 | 62,016 (93.5) | 4,337 (6.5) | 0.895 |
No | 77,655 (83.6) | 15,233 (16.4) | 87,251 (93.9) | 5,637 (6.1) | 79,913 (86.0) | 12,975 (14.0) | 86,832 (93.5) | 6,056 (6.5) |
Among the final cohort, 60,580 cases (38.0%) were recorded as extrathoracic metastasis. In total, the four metastatic lesions (bone, brain, liver, and distant lymph node) accounted for 94.0% (56,933/60,580) of all extrathoracic metastatic sites. And the frequencies of bone, brain, liver and distant lymph node (DL) metastasis were 19.2% (30,620/159,241), 13.3% (21,246/159,241), 12.2% (19,380/159,241), and 6.5% (10,393/159,241), respectively.
As shown in
Frequencies of extrathoracic metastatic organs according to different histological types. DL, distant lymph node. (***
For clinicopathological features, metastatic group tended to have younger age, poorer tumor differentiation, larger tumor size and higher frequency of regional lymph node invasion (
For further analyzing combination of metastases, we performed pie charts to investigate single-metastases and co-metastases among different histological types of lung cancer (
Relative rates of single and combined metastatic sites in different histological types.
Furthermore, we calculated odds ratios to compare each possible combination of different extrathoracic metastatic lesions (
Odds ratio comparison among different metastatic combinations. ***
In the present study, we analyzed 1-year OS and CSS in cases with diverse extrathoracic metastatic lesions (
Survival analysis in diverse metastatic organs.
No metastasis | 50.8 | 12615.144 | <0.001 | 57.5 | 13549.160 | <0.001 |
Metastasis | 20.0 | 25.9 | ||||
No metastasis | 48.4 | 6499.456 | <0.001 | 55.1 | 7316.606 | <0.001 |
Metastasis | 22.1 | 27.4 | ||||
No metastasis | 49.2 | 14245.964 | <0.001 | 55.8 | 14802.929 | <0.001 |
Metastasis | 13.6 | 20.1 | ||||
No metastasis | 46.4 | 2748.753 | <0.001 | 53.0 | 2990.572 | <0.001 |
Metastasis | 22.9 | 28.8 |
Kaplan–Meier curves of cancer specific survival in patients according to metastatic status.
Furthermore, Cox regression models were conducted to identify independent prognostic factors (
Multivariate analyses of overall and cancer-specific survival in related to metastatic sites.
No metastasis | Reference | Reference | ||
Bone metastasis | 1.312 (1.302–1.321) | <0.001 | 1.337 (1.328–1.348) | <0.001 |
Brain metastasis | 1.339 (1.328–1.351) | <0.001 | 1.368 (1.357–1.381) | <0.001 |
Liver metastasis | 1.344 (1.333–1.355) | <0.001 | 1.375 (1.363–1.388) | <0.001 |
DL metastasis | 1.263 (1.235–1.290) | <0.001 | 1.283 (1.254–1.313) | <0.001 |
Additionally, survival differences between different bi-organ metastases were analyzed (
Kaplan–Meier curves of cancer specific survival in patients with different bi-site metastatic patterns.
Lung cancer related deaths are mainly attributable to extrathoracic metastasis (
According to the reported data, bone and brain were two leading distant targets for metastasis in NSCLC (
Notably, according to the clinicopathological features, metastatic group tended to have a poorer tumor differentiation, a larger tumor size and a higher rate of regional lymph node invasion, which indicated a more aggressive and invasive hallmark of tumor biology. Compared to non-metastatic patients, advanced-stage patients received less surgery and more chemotherapy, because they lost the chance of curative resection at the time of diagnosis. And since radiation could control tumor growth of metastatic nodules as well as alleviating symptoms, patients with bone or brain metastasis received more radiation therapy than non-metastatic patients.
But these conclusions have their own historical limitaions. With the development of immunotherapy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy, patients may benefit from these modern and fancy therapies, and they could even get the chance of surgery due to the shrinking tumors. Considering these demographic, clinicopathological and treatment variables that may have impact on survival outcomes, we further conducted multivariate analysis and found that all single-site metastases were independent prognostic factors.
To our knowledge, no previous population-based researches studied the combined metastatic patterns of lung cancer. Our results indicated that bone preferentially tended to co-metastasize with liver and distal lymph nodes. And liver metastasis was significantly correlated with distant lymph node metastasis. To our knowledge, analyzing tendency of co-metastases would be rather useful to assess potential risks and make diagnosis and treatment strategies. Once bone metastasis was found, we need to screen the liver and get an enhanced CT to detect the lymph nodes. Thus, patients may get a comprehensive system treatment. And, if liver metastasis needed to be surgical removed, doctors should note that lymph node dissection is the necessary and best choice. Moreover, we further assessed the prognostic values of bi-site metastases. As shown in Kaplan–Meier curves, combined metastasis resulted in worse prognostic ending than the separated single-organ metastasis. So patients with multi-organ metastasis may need more aggressive therapeutic regimens.
Though we seriously performed this population-based research, there may still be several potential limitations. The first limitation may be the retrospective nature of this study. We only enrolled patients with detailed distal metastasis since SEER database recorded from year 2010. Second, information of extrathoracic metastatic sites was restricted to bone, brain, liver, and DL. However, these four metastatic lesions accounted for the majority of extrathoracic metastatic sites in lung cancer. Third, the metastasis condition from SEER was synchronous when diagnosed, but in the real world, metachronous carcinoma accounts for the majority. These limitations could cause bias in some results.
In a word, we comprehensively analyzed the pattern of extrathoracic metastases in different histological types of lung cancer in this population-based study. We found that the frequency of bone metastasis was the highest in adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, LCLC and NSCLC/NOS, while liver was the most common metastatic site in SCLC. Bi-site metastases occurred more common than tri-site and tetra-site metastases. Several metastatic sites, such as bone and liver, intended to co-metastasize preferentially. All single-site metastases were independent prognostic factors and co-metastases ended up with even worse survival outcomes. Thus, our findings would be beneficial for future research design and clinical practice.
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.
Conception and design: XW and ZW. Development of methodology: XW, ZW, and JP. Acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data (e.g., statistical analysis, biostatistics, computational analysis): Z-YL, DX, H-JZ, and S-HW. Writing, review and/or revision of the manuscript: XW, ZW, and JP. Study supervision: D-YH and X-FC. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at:
The number of odds ratio comparison among different metastatic combinations.