Combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema predicts recurrence following surgery in patients with stage I non-small cell lung cancer

The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinicopathologic characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema (CPFE). We investigated the association between CPFE, the cancer survival, and the pathological features of clinical stage I NSCLC patients. Between 2005 and 2014, 218 consecutive patients with clinical stage I NSCLC underwent complete resection with systematic lymph node dissection. A univariate analysis by log-rank tests was performed to determine the risk factors for recurrence, and the Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to identify potential independent predictors. The 5-year recurrence-free proportion of patients with CPFE was 36%, which was significantly lower than in those without CPFE (82%; p < 0.001). On multivariate analysis, the presence of CPFE was one of the statistically significant independent predictors for tumor recurrence (p = 0.005). Postoperative pathological prognostic factors, including moderate or poor histological differentiation, lymphatic permeation, intratumoral vascular invasion, and lymph node metastasis, were detected more often in patients with CPFE. NSCLC patients with CPFE have histologically more invasive tumors than those without CPFE. In patients with clinical stage I NSCLC, the presence of CPFE was a statistically significant predictor of recurrence.