Lung Tumor Vascularity and Survival in Patients With NSCLC Undergoing Surgery

Vascularization is known to be linked to tumor growth. Results of a study that explored the potential of automated lung tumor vascularity assessment as a risk factor for landmark survival were presented at the ESMO Congress 2023.

The researchers evaluated 131 CT scans from the NSCLC Radiogenomics dataset. All of the patients underwent surgery with or without other treatment. Vascularity features extracted for the primary lung tumor (PLT) included amount of blood vessel connections, percentage of the tumor surface connected to vessels (%area), and basic statistics on the surface area of the connections. A generalized linear model (GLM) to predict landmark survival was trained with these features, tumor volume, and clinical factors.

Results showed that landmark survival was reached for 86 of 131 patients (66%). GLM analysis showed four independent risk factors related to landmark survival: %area (OR, 1.69 for >2.5%), age (OR, 1.57 for >70 years), gender (OR, 2.10 for male), and radiation therapy (OR, 1.51 for yes). The researchers found that risk of dying before landmark survival rose with an increased number of risk factors (0%, 18%, 40%, 48%, and 100% for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 risk factors, respectively).

The researchers concluded that lung tumor vascularity is an independent risk factor for landmark survival. “We showed an approach where it can be used as an additional prognostic factor to inform clinical decision-making and therapy planning.”

Source: Filippi ARR. Lung tumour vascularity is a risk factor for survival in NSCLC patients. Abstract of a poster presented at the ESMO Congress 2023; October 20-24, 2023; Madrid, Spain.