An effective tool for predicting survival in breast cancer patients with lung metastasis: Nomograms constructed based on SEER.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: An effective tool for forecasting the survival of BCLM is lacking. This study aims to construct nomograms to predict overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS) in breast cancer patients with lung metastasis, and to help clinicians develop appropriate treatment regimens for breast cancer lung metastasis (BCLM) individuals.

METHODS

We gathered clinical data of 2,537 patients with BCLM between 2010 and 2015 from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Cox regression analysis was employed to identify independent prognostic parameters for BCLM, which were integrated to establish nomograms by R software. The discriminative ability and predictive accuracy of the nomograms were assessed using the concordance index (C-index), receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, and calibration plots. Kaplan-Meier analyses were applied to evaluate the clinical utility of the risk stratification system and investigate the survival benefit of primary site surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy for BCLM patients.

RESULTS

Two nomograms shared common prognostic indicators including age, marital status, race, laterality, grade, AJCC T stage, subtype, bone metastasis, brain metastasis, liver metastasis, surgery, and chemotherapy. The results of the C-index, ROC curves, and calibration curves demonstrated that the nomograms exhibited an outstanding performance in predicting the prognosis of BCLM patients. Significant differences in the Kaplan-Meier curves of various risk groups corroborated the nomograms' excellent stratification. Primary site surgery and chemotherapy remarkably improved OS and BCSS of BCLM patients whether the patients were at low-risk or high-risk, but radiotherapy did not.

CONCLUSIONS

We successfully developed prognostic stratification nomograms to forecast prognosis in BCLM patients, which provide important information for indicating prognosis and facilitating individualized treatment regimens for BCLM patients.