ABSTRACT

In our study, cases who have been operated due to the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) were staged by the 7th edition of the tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) staging system and analyzed with respect to the survival association between previous and novel TNM systems.

The study included 136 patients operated with a diagnosis of NSCLC between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2010 at our clinic. Patients comprised 9 (6.62%) females and 127 (93.38%) males. The age range and mean age of the cases were 30-76 years and 59.4 years, respectively.

Histopathological examination detected squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous cell carcinoma, bronchioalveolar carcinoma, and large cell carcinoma in 88 (64.8%), 41 (30.2%), 4 (2.9%), 1 (0.7%), and 2 (1.4%) cases, respectively. No statistically significant association was found between mortality and tumor type (p=0.184). According to the 7th edition of the TNM staging system, of the cases, 18 (13.2%), 40 (29.4%), 22 (16.2%), 33 (24.3%), and 23 (16.9%) were stage IA, stage IB, stage IIA, stage IIB, and stage IIIA, respectively. There was a statistically significant association between mortality and tumor stage in our study (p=0.028). In addition, applying the 6th edition of the TNM staging revealed a statistically significant association between mortality and tumor stage (p=0.017).

Tumor stage was found to be the most important factor affecting survival in our study group. No statistically significant difference was determined between the subgroups when the previous and novel staging systems were compared.