Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Bronchioloalveolar Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study of 44 Cases

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC) is considered a subtype of adenocarcinoma of the lung.Recently BAC has been variously termed adenocarcinoma in situ, minimally invasive adenocarcinoma, lepidicpredominant invasive adenocarcinoma, and invasive mucinous adenocarcinoma. The aim of the study was toanalyze and detect prognostic factors of patients with BAC over a 7-year period. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: Thisretrospective single-center study included 44 patients with BAC. The impact on survival of fifteen variables(gender, age, smoking status, cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis, fever, chest pain, sputum, metastasis number, Karnofskyperformance status, pT, pN, TNM stage, cytotoxic chemoterapy) were assessed. <br/><b>Results</b>: Median age was 55 years(38-83). Most patients were male (63.6%) and stage IV (59.1%). Twenty-one patients (47.7%) received cytotoxicchemotherapy (platinum-based regimens) for metastatic disease. Objective response rate was 33.3% (4 partial,3 complete responses). Stable disease was observed in nine in patients (42.8%). Disease progression was notedin 5 (23.8%). The median OS for all patients was 12 months (95%CI, 2.08-22.9 months). Independent predictorsfor overall survival were: Karnofsky performance status (HR:3.30, p 0.009), pN (HR:3.81, p 0.018), TNM stage(HR:6.49, p 0.012) and hemoptysis (HR:2.31, p 0.046). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: Karnofsky performance status, pN, TNMstage and hemoptysis appear to have significant impact on predicting patient survival in cases of BAC.