Prognostic value of ground glass opacity on computed tomography in pathological stage I pulmonary adenocarcinoma: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

BACKGROUNDThe clinical role of ground glass opacity (GGO) on computed tomography (CT) in stage I pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients currently remains unclear.AIMTo explore the prognostic value of GGO on CT in lung adenocarcinoma patients who were pathologically diagnosed with tumor-node-metastasis stage I. METHODSA comprehensive and systematic search was conducted through the PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases up to April 3, 2021. The hazard ratio (HR) and corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) were combined to assess the association between the presence of GGO and prognosis, representing overall survival and disease-free survival. Subgroup analysis based on the ratio of GGO was also conducted. STATA 12.0 software was used for statistical analysis.RESULTSA total of 12 studies involving 4467 patients were included. The pooled results indicated that the GGO predicted favorable overall survival (HR = 0.44, 95%CI: 0.34-0.59, P < 0.001) and disease-free survival (HR = 0.35, 95%CI: 0.18-0.70, P = 0.003). Subgroup analysis based on the ratio of GGO further demonstrated that the proportion of GGO was a good prognostic indicator in pathological stage I pulmonary adenocarcinoma patients, and patients with a higher ratio of GGO showed better prognosis than patients with a lower GGO ratio did.CONCLUSIONThis meta-analysis manifested that the presence of GGO on CT predicted favorable prognosis in tumor-node-metastasis stage I lung adenocarcinoma. Patients with a higher GGO ratio were more likely to have a better prognosis than patients with a lower GGO ratio.