Prognostic significance of extracapsular extension in patients with non-small cell lung cancer following neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy: a retrospective cohort study

15 Jul 20264 min read0 viewsJournal Feed

GIST (Key Takeaways)

Background. Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a leading cause of oncology-related mortality. Although neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy (NCIT) improves pathologic response, disease recurrence remains common.
Extracapsular extension (ECE) is recognized as a hallmark of aggressive tumor biology across malignancies; however, its prognostic significance in the NCIT setting remains to be fully elucidated. This study aims to evaluate the impact of ECE on survival outcomes in patients with NSCLC following NCIT.Methods. A total of 104 patients with NSCLC and pathologically confirmed lymph node metastasis who underwent surgery following NCIT were retrospectively enrolled.
Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression evaluated the prognostic impact of ECE. To minimize selection bias, propensity score matching (PSM) analyses were performed. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves assessed predictive accuracy.
Results. ECE-positive patients had significantly worse DFS than ECE-negative counterparts; multivariable analysis confirmed that ECE was an independent prognostic factor for DFS (HR = 2.37, 95% CI: 1.28–4.41, P = 0.006). Furthermore, integrating ECE status with major pathologic response (MPR) substantially improved the predictive accuracy for 2-year DFS compared to MPR alone (AUC increased from 0.591 to 0.706).

Clinical Editorial

Frontiers in Immunology published a clinical update in Infectious Disease on 15 Jul 2026.

The item focuses on Prognostic significance of extracapsular extension in patients with non-small cell lung cancer following neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy: a retrospective cohort study.

Review the original article for the full source wording and details.