Impact of the staging method on the prognostic utility of the 8th AJCC staging system for non-small-cell lung cancer

Abstract

Aim: To assess the impact of the staging method on the utility of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) system for non-small-cell lung cancer. Methods: Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database was accessed and cancer-specific survival analyses were conducted. Results: For cancer-specific survival among pathologically staged patients, p-values for all pair wise comparisons were significant, except for stage IIIB versus IIIC; while among clinically staged patients, p-values for all pair wise comparisons were significant, except for stage IIA versus IIB. Among pathologically staged patients, AJCC eighth c-statistic was 0.705; while among clinically staged patients, AJCC eighth c-statistic was 0.687. Conclusion: The discriminatory power of eighth AJCC for non-small-cell lung cancer is lower for clinically staged compared with pathologically staged patients.