Implications of surgical intervention in patients with metastatic pulmonary carcinoid tumors: a SEER-based population study and propensity score matching comparative analysis.

BACKGROUND

Currently, there are few studies on the significance of surgery for patients with metastatic pulmonary carcinoid tumors (PC). This study aims to explore the value of surgery for the long-term survival of patients with metastatic PC using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.

METHODS

Details on PC patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2020 were obtained from the SEER database (version 8.4.3) and assessed according to the presence or absence of surgical treatment. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to ensure a balance in clinicopathological factors between the two groups. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival curves and log-rank test were used to confirm the surgical benefit in patients with metastatic PC, and the Cox proportional hazards model was used to reveal the prognostic factors.

RESULTS

From the SEER database, 472 patients were found to meet the criteria for inclusion, with 118 of them having received surgery and 354 not having undergone any surgical treatment. After conducting a 1:1 PSM, there were 82 patients in each of the surgical and non-surgical groups. The patient cohort showed that surgery independently affected the prognosis of overall survival (OS). Furthermore, patients who received surgery exhibited notably better OS and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates than those receiving no surgery, as indicated by the K-M survival curves (P=0.02, P=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

The prognostic value of surgical treatment for individuals with metastatic PC was clarified through the PSM analysis utilizing SEER data. Surgical treatment at the primary site has been shown to significantly enhance the OS and CSS in this population. Therefore, primary-site surgical treatment should be actively employed for patients with metastatic PC. However, more prospective experiments are needed to verify this conclusion.