Introduction: Curative-intent treatment of superior sulcus tumors (SSTs) of the lung invading the spine presents considerable challenges. We retrospectively studied outcomes in a single center,... Show moreIntroduction: Curative-intent treatment of superior sulcus tumors (SSTs) of the lung invading the spine presents considerable challenges. We retrospectively studied outcomes in a single center, uniformly staged patient cohort treated with induction concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection (trimodality therapy).Methods: An institutional surgical database from the period between 2002 and 2021 was accessed to identify SSTs in which the resection included removal of at least part of the vertebral body. All patients were staged using fluorodeox-yglucose positron emission tomography (/computed tomography), computed tomography scan of the chest/upper abdomen, and brain imaging. Surgical morbidity was assessed using the Clavien-Dindo classification. Overall and disease-free survival were calculated using the Kaplan Meier method.Results: A total of 18 patients were included: 8 complete and 10 partial vertebrectomies were performed, with six of the eight complete vertebrectomies involving two vertebral levels, resulting in Complete surgical resection (R0) in 94%. Nine patients had a 1-day procedure, and nine were staged over 2 days. The median follow-up was 30 months (inter quartile range 11-57). The 90-day postoperative morbidity was 44% (grade III/IV), with no 90-day surgery-related mortality. There were 83% who had a major pathologic response, associated with improved survival (p 1/4 0.044). The 5-year overall and disease-free survival were 55% and 40%, respectively. Disease progression occurred in 10 patients, comprising locoregional recurrences in two and distant metastases in eight patients.Conclusions: Multimodality treatment in selected patients with a superior sulcus tumor invading the spine is safe and results in good survival. Such patients should be referred to expert centers. Future research should focus on improving distant control (e.g. [neo]adjuvant immunotherapy).(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Show less
Uenal, S.; Winkelman, J.A.; Heineman, D.J.; Bahce, I.; Dorp, M. van; Braun, J.A.; ... ; Dickhoff, C. 2023
Introduction: Superior sulcus tumors (SSTs) are uncom-mon, and their anatomical location can make treatment challenging. We analyzed late outcomes of patients with SST treated with concurrent... Show moreIntroduction: Superior sulcus tumors (SSTs) are uncom-mon, and their anatomical location can make treatment challenging. We analyzed late outcomes of patients with SST treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by surgical resection (trimodality) in a single tertiary institution.Methods: Patients with non-small cell SSTs, who under-went trimodality therapy between 2002 and 2017, were selected from a prospective institutional surgical database. Patients were uniformly staged with 18F-fluorodeox-yglucose-positron emission tomography, computed tomog-raphy scan of the chest and upper abdomen, and brain imaging. Patients undergoing resection of the lung plus chest wall were grouped as limited SST and those needing extensive resections (e.g., including the vertebral body) as extended SST. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was per-formed to determine difference in survival. Multivariate Cox regression was used to identify prognostic factors.Results: A total of 123 patients were identified with a me-dian follow-up of 4.9 years (interquartile range: 1.6-8.9 y). The 90-day postoperative mortality and morbidity (Clavien-Dindo grades III-V) were 6.5% and 21.1%, respectively. Patients with a radical resection (R0: 92.7%) had better survival (p = 0.002), as did those who had major pathologic response (73%) (p = 0.001). Ten-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival were 48.1% and 42.6%, respec-tively. There were no differences in 90-day mortality (p = 0.31) and OS (p = 0.79) between extended SST and limited SST patients.Conclusions: In patients with SST, trimodality resulted in a 10-year estimated OS and disease-free survival of 48.1% and 42.6%, respectively, which were improved after radical resection (R0) and major pathologic response. Survival for limited and extended resections was comparable, and distant relapse was the main pattern of failure. Better sys-temic treatments are therefore needed. (c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Show less
