Survival outcomes for patients with adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung are not well understood by virtue of reduced prevalence. To address this, a recent study sought to compare the long-term survival among patients with adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung. Among patients who met study criteria (n = 88,983), there were 2,469 (2.77%) with adenosquamous, 60,148 (67.59%) with adenocarcinoma, and 26,366 (29.63%) with SCC histology. In patients who had T1-T2 N0 M0 disease, adenosquamous carcinoma was associated with significantly worse 5-year overall survival when compared with adenocarcinoma and SCC. In multivariable Cox proportional hazards analysis, adenocarcinoma and SCC continued to be associated with significantly better survival when compared to adenosquamous carcinoma histology. A propensity score-matched analysis of 1,854 patients with adenocarcinoma and 1,854 with adenosquamous, who were well-matched by 17 common prognostic covariates, found that adenosquamous histology was associated with worse survival when compared to adenocarcinoma. An additional propensity score-matched analysis of 1,852 patients with SCC and 1,852 with adenosquamous matched by the same covariates demonstrated that adenosquamous carcinoma was associated with worse survival when compared with SCC.
Patients with early-stage (T1-2N0) adenosquamous lung cancer have worse long-term survival compared to patients with early-stage lung adenocarcinoma or squamous cell histology.
