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Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2007;31:186-191. doi:10.1016/j.ejcts.2006.10.040
Copyright © 2007, European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved
Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy
Received 8 September 2006; received in revised form 24 October 2006; accepted 25 October 2006.
* Corresponding author. Address: Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Cardio-Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, University of Padua, Via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy. Tel.: +39 0498212237; fax: +39 0498212249. (Email: federico.rea{at}unipd.it).
| Abstract |
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Key Words: Carcinoid tumor Surgery Sleeve resection Bronchoscopy
| 1. Introduction |
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Aim of the study was to analyze our experience in two consecutive period (19681989, Group A and 19902005, Group B) in the management of bronchial carcinoids to better define the evolution of surgical strategy and the factors influencing outcome and long-term survival.
| 2. Patients and methods |
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Clinically, 187 (84.2%) patients were symptomatic, presenting the following scenario: obstructive pneumonia (74 patients, 29.4%), persistent cough (42 patients, 16.7%), haemoptysis (34 patients, 13.5%), recurrent fever (9 patients, 3.6%), chest pain (8 patients, 3.2%), dyspnoea (6 patients, 2.4%) and other symptoms (12 patients, 4.8%). Carcinoid syndrome was observed only in two cases (0.8%). Sixty-five (25.8%) patients were asymptomatic. Preoperative evaluation included radiological investigations (Chest X-Ray, Chest and upper abdomen computed tomography), tracheo-bronchial endoscopy and, since 2000 the analysis of the expression of Somatostatin receptors in the primary tumor and/or in secondary localizations by using Octreotide marked with Indium 111 (Octreotide-scan).
The tumors were classified as central if visualized directly at bronchoscopy or if associated with atelectasis or obstructive pneumonia and peripheral when the tumor was not visible at endoscopy.
After the preoperative evaluations the patients underwent surgery: the extension of surgical resection was established on the basis of local growth of the tumor privileging a parenchyma-sparing resection, when indicated. The decision to choose a conservative surgery was not due to the differences in performance status, functional respiratory tests, diffusing capacity, but was taken on bronchoscopic presentation, CT scanning and intra-operative findings as the state of lung parenchyma and the involvement of the frozen sections. Group A received lymph-node sampling, Group B received a systematic lymphadenectomy for histological examination.
| 3. Statistical analysis |
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| 4. Results |
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No operative or postoperative mortality was seen. Seventeen patients (6.7%) experienced complications: 4 patients presented pneumothorax after chest tube removal, 4 had atrial fibrillation, 3 experienced prolonged air leaks, 2 had haemothorax that required blood transfusions, 2 had pleural empyema after lobectomy, one patient received a left lower lobectomy 2 days after an isolated bronchoplasty of the lower lobar bronchus for bronchial stenosis and one patient had a late cicatricial bronchial stenosis after sleeve lobectomy, treated successfully by laser therapy.
According to the histologic findings there were 174 (69%) patients with TC and 78 (31%) with AC. In Table 2 we show the differences in clinical and pathological characteristics between the two histotypes. Nineteen (7.5%) patients had the involvement of the ipsilateral hilar lymph-nodes (N1) and 10 (4%) patients presented N2 disease. TC had a lower rate of nodal involvement compared with AC (4% and 28.2%, respectively; p = 0.0001). No difference was found between Group A and B in detection of nodal metastases (10.9% versus 11.9%; p = 0.79), but in Group A we observed during follow-up 2 lymph-node relapses (carinal and paratracheal) that required a reoperation.
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Overall 5, 10 and 15-year survival rates were 90%, 83% and 77% (Fig. 1 ). The univariate analysis (Table 3 ) reached statistical value for histology (Fig. 2 ), nodal status (Fig. 3 ), sex, age, type of surgery and localization. No differences in survival were showed between Group A and B. Multivariate analysis showed a significant independent prognostic value for histology (p = 0.0004), nodal status (p = 0.004), age (p = 0.003) and sex (p = 0.005).
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| 5. Discussion |
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These characteristics are evident also in our experience: TC showed a significant better survival than AC (10-years survival 93% and 64%, respectively; p = 0.00001), having a lower percentage of recurrence (3.4% and 17.9%, respectively; p = 0.0001).
In several experiences [5,7,11,12], histology represents the most important factor determining the prognosis: in our series the univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated the strong power of histologic subtype in conditioning the long-term survival.
Our data on the demographic characteristics demonstrated a small prevalence of carcinoids in males (53.6% versus 46.4%, male/female ratio: 1.15); instead, a significant difference in the age at presentation was noted in our and other experiences [7,13]. In fact patients affected by TC were younger (median 39 years) than those affected by AC (median age 56 years) who had a median age similar to that of patients with lung carcinoma. Male sex and older age have been found significant negative prognostic factors in statistical analysis that could also be explained by the strict association with histology: in fact AC affected preferentially male patients older than those affected by TC (Table 2).
Moreover the poor prognosis observed in patients with peripheral located tumors seems also related to the different preference for peripheral pulmonary localization of TC and AC (28 of 174; 16.1% and 29 of 78; 37.2%; p = 0.0002).
Endoscopy plays a central role in diagnosis and initial management of carcinoids: in our experience the majority of patients (77.4%) had a centrally located tumor visible at bronchoscopy. Out of 195 patients with central carcinoid, 117 (60%) had a preoperative diagnosis thanks to biopsy. Moreover, in the last period we observed a significant higher rate of preoperative diagnosis that can be explained by early acknowledgement of the linked symptoms and a more aggressive and accurate diagnostic approach, especially related to endobronchial biopsies, that in our hands showed no significant morbidity. Therefore, a careful preoperative endoscopic assessment is of fundamental importance in order to define the better surgical treatment and to determine the feasibility of a bronchoplastic procedure. In cases of central tumors obstructing the major bronchi, endoscopic debulking allows to look behind the tumor evaluating its base implant and it allows to treat airway obstruction avoiding the recurrent pneumonia that could damage irreversibly the lung parenchyma. In this line the use in the last years of endobronchial laser treatment has been useful to implement the rate of parenchyma-sparing operations (bronchoplastic and sleeve resections).
Surgery represents the cornerstone of treatment for pulmonary carcinoids and it is the treatment of choice, achieving a long-term survival in case of radical resection. Despite that, a number of surgical aspects are still controversial. Our review of surgical experience covering a long period of time demonstrated an evolution of surgical strategy. Last period of our experience was characterized by a significant increased number of sleeve resection or bronchoplastic procedures in carcinoids centrally located, that led to a significant reduction of pneumonectomies. These results have been obtained thanks to the improvement of surgical techniques, but also thanks to the popularization of parenchyma-sparing operations based on bronchoplastic or sleeve resections which do not alter the oncologic result and obviously guarantee a better quality of life [14]. In particular, in our experience sleeve resections did not increase the operative risk and, at long-term follow up, we did not notice local recurrences even in cases with reduced edges of healthy tissue. Therefore, we think that the modern management of central carcinoids should privilege, when possible, sleeve resections being the oncological results good and the rate of local recurrence low in most experiences [6,1416]. The need to avoid pneumonectomy gets more weight when we consider that central TC affects preferentially young people.
Kurul et al. [17] found wedge bronchoplasty not a safe procedure, although easy and fast. They stated that wedge bronchoplasty with large margins can cause kinking in the bronchial system, which is one of the major reasons for complications such as atelectasis, stenosis and dehiscence. In our experience we observed one complication due to kinking of bronchus that required a reoperation. We believe that most of all in TC large free margins of resections as required for lung carcinomas are not mandatory being local recurrence rare. Regarding the peripheral tumors, Ferguson et al. [11] in a multicentric retrospective study found limited resections as wedge resection or segmentectomy to be justified in case of peripheral early stage TC tumors because of the unlikely local recurrence and the excellent survival. Mezzetti et al. [18] found an increasing number of relapses in AC treated with atypical resection. Our experience did not show an increased percentage of recurrence in case of limited resection.
Surgical resection of carcinoid tumors should always be combined with complete homolateral lymph node dissection. The necessity for lymph node dissection is justified by the possibility of lymph nodal metastases, which may have an incidence ranging from 6% to 25% [12,19]. The disparity of these data is certainly explained by a different surgical strategy of lymph node dissection: some authors [7,13] use sampling or reserve the radical lymphadenectomy only for AC [11], other authors [6,8,9,12] believe that a systematic mediastinal lymph node dissection is mandatory such as for non small lung cancer, for both types of carcinoids. In our experience we changed surgical strategy: before 1990 we preferred surgical excision combined with sampling and, after a revision of our data [20], we found that the patients with lymph nodes involvement had a worse prognosis for local or distant metastases. Since 1990 we start to treat the patients with surgery and complete lymphadenectomy: although we did not note an increased number of lymph node metastases in comparison with the first period (10.9% versus 11.9%, p = 0.79), no nodal relapses were recorded after 1990.
Prognostic relevance of lymph-nodes involvement has been underlined by several authors: Cardillo et al. [12] found a significant better survival for N0 patients compared with N1 and 2 patients (5-year survival 100%, 84.2% and 22.2%; p = 0.000). Garcia-Yuste et al. [21] and Filosso et al. [7] reported a significant difference in the rate of nodal involvement between TC and AC. Our findings corroborate the previous results: N0 patients had a statistical better survival than N1-2 and a lower percentage of lymph nodes metastases was detected in TC than in AC. Therefore, the investigation for lymph nodes metastases seems an unavoidable requisite to establish the prognosis and eventually to evaluate the opportunity of adjuvant therapies. The accuracy of pathological diagnosis can be increased as demonstrated by Mineo et al. [9], who described the relevance of lymph node micrometastases detected by immunohistochemical techniques.
In conclusion, histology seems the main prognostic factor in carcinoid tumors. AC affected preferentially patients older than TC and demonstrated a more aggressive oncologic behaviour with a high percentage of nodal metastases and distant recurrences. In central carcinoids sleeve and bronchoplastic parenchyma-saving resections should be considered the standard surgical procedure together with a systematic lymphadenectomy. A multidisciplinary treatment should be investigated for AC with lymph node metastases.
| Appendix A |
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Dr A. End (Vienna, Austria): What is your current strategy with adjuvant therapy in atypical carcinoids?
Dr Rea: We dont use any kind of chemotherapy in these patients at the moment if we have no residual tumor. Only if we have relapse do we treat these patients medically.
Dr End: You applied a multivariate model, including several putative prognostic factors. The results always depend on the analysis which is used. Did you ever look at other multivariate models?
Dr Rea: Sorry?
Dr End: Did you only do one multivariate model or did you do other models?
Dr Rea: No, we just used the univariate and the multivariate analysis.
Dr G. Egri (Budapest, Hungary): I would like to ask if you have any data on the long-term results. Did you have distant metastases? Second, did you do an evaluation of somatostatin receptors and did you think of any therapy based on that?
Dr Rea: The first question, the distant relapse, yes, we had distant relapse mainly in atypical carcinoids. Your second question?
Dr Egri: Somatostatin receptors in the histology.
Dr Rea: The study of the receptors?
Dr Egri: Yes.
Dr Rea: Now I am trying to study the somatostatin receptors in these patients. We have a study to perform somatostatin receptors in every patient, but we have preliminary data.
Dr K. Athanassiadi (Hannover, Germany): Congratulations on your long series, but Im a little bit concerned since the first group started in 1968 if you have the correct diagnosis. I mean we did immunohistochemistry for carcinoids in the late 1980s. Are you sure about your diagnosis in this period of time?
Dr Rea: Of course this is one of the limitations, the long period, but in all patients the histology was reviewed, and we excluded all patients who did not show a histologic diagnosis of a carcinoid.
Dr O. Kshivets (Siauliai, Lithuania): What is your personal opinion in the case of central typical carcinoid with using endoscopic cryosurgery and laser surgery as the radical procedure?
Dr Rea: Sorry?
Dr Kshivets: For central localized typical carcinoid, maybe cryosurgery and laser surgery will be enough in terms of completeness.
Dr Rea: The question is if we can use a radical laser resection? No, I do not believe this is a good option, because we have seen that even in typical carcinoid we can have lymph node metastases and we can have tumor relapse in the lymph nodes.
| Footnotes |
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| References |
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