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M.P. Smeltzer



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    MINI 06 - Quality/Prognosis/Survival (ID 111)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Treatment of Localized Disease - NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI06.04 - Impact of Attainment of the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer Quality Measure on Patient Survival After Lung Cancer Resection (ID 2177)

      17:00 - 17:05  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Institution-driven survival disparities persist among non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who receive curative-intent surgical resection. Recently, the Commission on Cancer (CoC) established an institutional quality surveillance measure: the proportion of resected stage IA–IIB NSCLC with examination of ≥10 lymph nodes. We examined the potential impact of this measure on long-term patient survival.

      Methods:
      We analyzed all stage IA-IIB NSCLC resections in the Mid-South Quality of Surgical Resection cohort, a patient-level database of all lung cancer resections performed in 11 institutions in 5 Dartmouth Hospital Referral Regions in Eastern Arkansas, Northern Mississippi, and Western Tennessee from 2004-2013. We recorded pathologic staging details. Patients receiving pre-operative therapy were excluded. A trend analysis of quality and survival disparities was performed based on a Cox proportional hazard model, adjusted for age and pathologic stage.

      Results:
      Of 1,877 eligible patients, 77% were stage I and 23% stage II. The median number of lymph nodes retrieved during surgery was 6 (interquartile range [IQR]: 3-10). The CoC quality measure was achieved in 27.8% of cases. Conversely, 11% of resections had no lymph nodes examined (pNX). The proportion of cases meeting the CoC criteria increased from 18.8% in 2004 to 50% in 2013 (p<0.001). Large variations among institutions existed, ranging from 14% to 55% of institutional cases meeting the CoC measure. Compared to pNX resections, resections with at least one lymph node examined yielded some survival benefit (Hazard ratio (HR): 0.71, 95%CI: 0.54-0.93, p=0.014). Likewise, Patients with 10-12 lymph nodes examined had 43% overall survival benefit (HR: 0.57, 95%CI: 0.40-0.81, p=0.002), but survival did not significantly improve compared with 4-6 (the median) lymph nodes harvested (p=0.48). However, the survival benefit improved as more lymph nodes were examined, reaching an optimal point of a 72% benefit when 19-21 lymph nodes were harvested (HR: 0.28, 95%CI: 0.11-0.68, p=0.005). Compared with 4-6 lymph nodes, the survival benefit was 17% (p=0.06) (Figure 1). Furthermore, for those with any mediastinal lymph nodes sampled during the surgery, the survival benefit was 17% (HR: 0.82, 95%CI: 0.71-0.96, p=0.015). Figure 1



      Conclusion:
      Only 28% of NSCLC resections achieved the CoC measure, with large variations among institutions, but the overall rate of attainment has increased over time. Compared with no lymph nodes examined, meeting the CoC criteria provided a 43% overall survival benefit. However, more stringent measures, such as examining 20 lymph nodes (72%) or requiring mediastinal lymph node examination (17%), will have even greater survival impact.

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    MINI 20 - Surgery (ID 137)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Mini Oral
    • Track: Treatment of Locoregional Disease – NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      MINI20.03 - The Survival Impact of Missed Lymph Node Metastasis in Surgically Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) (ID 2204)

      16:55 - 17:00  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Lymph node (LN) metastasis is an important prognostic factor for patients with surgically resected NSCLC. We have previously described the extent of missed N1 LN metastasis in a cohort of patients treated at metropolitan institutions. With long-term follow up, we now quantify the survival impact of missed LN metastasis.

      Methods:
      We conducted a prospective cohort study to retrieve intrapulmonary LNs from discarded NSCLC resection specimens after completion of routine pathology examination. Retrieved materials were histologically examined and classified as LNs with and without metastasis. Survival information was retrieved from institutional tumor registries. Survival distributions were plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and evaluated with proportional hazards models controlling for gender, race, pathologic N-category, tumor size, margin status, and Charlson score.

      Results:
      We evaluated 111 patients who were 47% male with a median age of 66 years. Clinical characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Discarded LNs with metastasis were found after re-dissection in 25 (23%) patients. Patients with discarded LN metastasis had an increased risk of death (Figure 1) with an unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 2.0 (p-value=0.06) and an adjusted HR of 1.8 (p-value=0.23) compared to those with no discarded LNs with metastasis. When >2 discarded LNs with metastasis were found, patients had 4.8 (p-value=0.0002) times the hazard of death compared to those with no discarded LNs with metastasis (adjusted HR=4.4, p-value=0.0032).

      N(%) No LN Metastasis LN Metastasis Total
      Bi-lobectomy 8 2 10
      9% 8%
      Lobectomy 75 16 91
      87% 64%
      Pneumonectomy 3 7 10
      3% 28%
      N0 71 6 77
      83% 24%
      N1 6 12 18
      7% 48%
      N2 9 7 16
      10% 28%
      T1 45 3 48
      52% 12%
      T2 29 11 40
      34% 44%
      T3 10 8 18
      12% 32%
      T4 2 2 4
      2% 8%
      Margin Negative 83 22 105
      97% 88%
      Margin Positive 3 3 6
      3% 12%
      Mean(SD)
      Charlson Score 1.8 1.8 1.8
      1.6 1.7 1.6
      Tumor Size(cm) 3.2 5.0 3.6
      1.8 2.1 2.0
      Figure 1



      Conclusion:
      The presence of metastasis in inadvertently discarded LNs in NSCLC resection specimens has significant implications for patients’ post-operative clinical course. Additional LN metastasis found on re-dissection was associated with reduced survival. A more rigorous protocol for gross dissection of lung resection specimens is needed, and should prove beneficial to patients’ long-term survival.

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    ORAL 20 - Chemoradiotherapy (ID 124)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Oral Session
    • Track: Treatment of Locoregional Disease – NSCLC
    • Presentations: 1
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      ORAL20.07 - Survival Impact of Post-Operative Therapy Modalities after Incomplete and Complete Surgical Resection for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer in the US (ID 1417)

      11:39 - 11:50  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Incomplete resection of potentially curable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) is a significantly negative clinical event for which adjuvant radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or combined chemo-radiotherapy is often used to reduce mortality risk. After complete (R0) resection, randomized controlled trials and the PORT meta-analysis show radiotherapy to be harmful to patients with stage I-II disease, and of marginal benefit in patients with N2-positive stage IIIA. After incomplete resection (R1/R2), current National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines recommend radiotherapy for stage IA/IB and chemo-radiotherapy for patients with stage IIA-IIIA. Adjuvant therapy recommendations after R1/R2 resection have never been verified.

      Methods:
      With the objective of validating NCCN post-operative therapy guidelines, we evaluated patients with surgically resected pathologic stage I-IIIA NSCLC in the National Cancer Data Base from 2004-2011. Recipients of pre-operative adjuvant therapy and those with no lymph nodes examined were excluded. Post-operative therapy modalities were classified as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, chemo-radiotherapy, or no treatment. Analyses were adjusted for patient demographic, clinical, and surgical characteristics, as well as institutional characteristics. Analyses were conducted by margin status and stage groups based on NCCN classifications (Table I). Unadjusted stage-specific 5-year overall survival (OS) estimates were calculated based on the Kaplan-Meier method and compared across post-treatment modalities with the log-rank test. Survival was modeled with Extended Cox Regression to adjust for all covariates and allow for non-proportional hazards.

      Results:
      Among 98,176 NSCLC patients who underwent curative-intent surgery during 2004-2011, 48% were male, 79% white, 34% privately insured, and 58% Medicare insured, with a median age of 68 years. The 5-year OS estimates by treatment modality are shown in Table I (NCCN recommendations highlighted). Margin negative patients with stage IA or IB/IIA who received post-operative radiotherapy had significantly lower OS compared to those with no treatment (both p-values<0.0001). We also observed lower OS with post-operative radiotherapy in margin positive patients with stage IA (p-value=0.0006) and IB/IIA (p-value=0.0302). Survival was significantly higher in persons with stages IB-IIIA who received post-operative chemotherapy compared to no treatment (all p-values<0.0001). Fully adjusted modeling analyses (not shown) yielded similar results.

      5 Year Survival (P-Value)
      NCCN Categorized Group Margin Positive Margin Negative
      Stage IA (T1ab,N0) No Treatment 60%(Ref) 71%(Ref)
      Chemo-Only 64%(0.86) 74%(0.33)
      Radiotherapy-Only 24%(0.0006) 47%(<0.0001)
      Chemo+Rad 44%(0.17) 43%(<0.0001)
      (N=458) (N=41279)
      Stage IB (T2a,N0) & Stage IIA (T2b,N0) No Treatment 48%(Ref) 57%(Ref)
      Chemo-Only 66%(0.0002) 69%(<0.0001)
      Radiotherapy-Only 30%(0.0302) 41%(<0.0001)
      Chemo+Rad 39%(0.28) 48%(<0.0001)
      (N=1016) (N=29111)
      Stage IIA (T1ab-T2a,N1) & Stage IIB (T3,N0;T2b,N1) No Treatment 27%(Ref) 39%(Ref)
      Chemo-Only 35%(<0.0001) 55%(<0.0001)
      Radiotherapy-Only 26%(0.84) 29%(<0.0001)
      Chemo+Rad 36%(<0.0001) 43%(0.0194)
      (N=1549) (N=15543)
      Stage IIIA (T1-3,N2;T3,N1) No Treatment 15%(Ref) 26%(Ref)
      Chemo-Only 25%(0.0013) 41%(<0.0001)
      Radiotherapy-Only 11%(0.76) 19%(0.0551)
      Chemo+Rad 26%(<0.0001) 39%(<0.0001)
      (N=1109) (N=8111)


      Conclusion:
      In patients with negative margins, results from the NCDB are consistent with randomized clinical trials and stage-specific NCCN post-operative adjuvant therapy recommendations. However, the NCCN recommendation of post-operative adjuvant radiotherapy for patients with early stage NSCLC with a positive resection margin is not supported by our results and should be further investigated in a randomized clinical trial.

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    ORAL 30 - Community Practice (ID 141)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Oral Session
    • Track: Community Practice
    • Presentations: 1
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      ORAL30.01 - Evolution in the Surgical Care of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients in the Mid-South Quality of Surgical Resection (MS-QSR) Cohort (ID 2980)

      16:45 - 16:56  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      Surgical resection is the most important curative modality for NSCLC. However, gaps in the quality of surgery adversely affect patients’ survival. In the Mid-South region, at the center of the US lung cancer mortality belt, we began a project in 2009 to improve the quality of surgery and pathology examination across all hospitals. We report the evolution of surgical quality in this region from 2004-2013.

      Methods:
      The MS-QSR database includes patient-level details from all NSCLC resections in 11 institutions in 5 Dartmouth Hospital Referral Regions in Eastern Arkansas, North Mississippi, and Western Tennessee. Data span the care delivery process from initial radiographic detection, through diagnostic and staging tests, to surgical treatment and post-operative outcomes. We performed trend analysis and comparisons among institutions.

      Results:
      There were 2,410 curative-intent NSCLC resections. Patient demographics, rates of non-invasive staging tests and pre-operative adjuvant therapy did not change. 92% of patients had a pre-operative CT, 80% had a PET-CT scan. The use of invasive staging tests (endobronchial ultrasound, mediastinoscopy, etc.) increased from 11.3% in 2009 to 22.3% in 2013 (p<0.001). The pneumonectomy rate decreased from 12% in 2004 to 6.2% in 2013 (p=0.05). The margin positivity rate remained stable at 5.8%. Stage distributions remained unchanged, with 63% stage I, 18% stage II, and 19% stage III or above. The total number of lymph nodes retrieved during resection remained unchanged until 2010 (median 4-5 from 2004 to 2010), after which, it increased significantly (median 7 in 2011, 9.5 in 2012, and 10 in 2013) (p<0.001) (figure 1). The mediastinal lymph node (MLN) examination rate increased from 53% in 2004 to 82% in 2013 (p<0.001). However, the rate of non-examination of lymph nodes (pNX) remained stable at 10%. Although the proportion of patients with N1 disease remained stable (17.6%), the proportion with N2 disease increased during a pilot testing phase with a MLN specimen collection kit implementation (10.8% in 2010 and 2011, and 7-8% in all other years). Finally, the re-hospitalization rate was 13.3%; the 60-day mortality rate was 6.4%. Figure 1



      Conclusion:
      In this population-based cohort, pre-operative and intraoperative nodal staging practice improved significantly. However, other quality measures (margin positivity and pNX rates) need further improvement. This early analysis suggests that a regional quality improvement project can improve overall patient survival in this high lung cancer mortality zone of the US.

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    ORAL 34 - Quality/Survival/Prognosis in Localized Lung Cancer (ID 153)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Oral Session
    • Track: Treatment of Localized Disease - NSCLC
    • Presentations: 3
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      ORAL34.02 - Impact of Attainment of National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Quality Parameters on Patient Survival after Resection of Lung Cancer (ID 2190)

      16:56 - 17:07  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      The NCCN surgical resection guidelines for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) recommend lobectomy or greater extent of resection, negative margins, and examination of lymph nodes from the hilum, and 3 or more mediastinal stations. We sought to determine the impact of these guidelines on patients’ long-term survival.

      Methods:
      We conducted a retrospective review of patient-level data from all curative-intent NSCLC resections at 11 institutions in 5 Dartmouth Hospital Referral Regions in Eastern Arkansas, North Mississippi, and Western Tennessee from 2004 to 2013. Following a descriptive analysis of the cohort, we used a Cox proportional hazard model to assess the overall survival impact of attaining the NCCN guidelines. All models were adjusted for patient age and pathologic stage.

      Results:
      Of the 2,410 eligible resections, 314 (13.1%) were sub-lobar, 86.9% were lobectomy or greater; 90.2% had negative margins, 5.8% had positive margins, 4% unknown margin status; 73.2% had hilar nodes sampled; but only 25.9% of surgeries had three or more mediastinal nodal stations sampled. Overall, although only 18% of surgeries met all four criteria, there was a significant increasing trend from 4% in 2004 and 12% in 2009, to 39% in 2013 (p<0.001). Patients whose surgery met all four criteria had a 23% survival benefit compared with those who did not (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 0.77, 95%CI: 0.64-0.94, p=0.009). Patients with negative margins had 15% survival benefit compared to those with positive margins (HR: 0.85, 95%CI: 0.66-1.08, p=0.18); those with lobectomy or greater resection had a 14% survival benefit over those with sub-lobar resection (HR: 0.86, 95%CI: 0.70-1.04, p=0.12); those with hilar node sampling had a 3% survival benefit (HR: 0.97, 95%CI: 0.83-1.13, p=0.68); and those with three or more mediastinal stations examined had a 17% survival benefit over those without (HR: 0.84, 95%CI: 0.71-0.98, p=0.03). Figure 1



      Conclusion:
      Although only 18% of NSCLC resections in this cohort from a high lung cancer mortality region of the US met all four NCCN good-quality surgical resection criteria, the rate of quality attainment has significantly increased during the past decade. Patients whose resections met NCCN quality criteria had a substantially survival benefit, which is particularly driven by the recommendation for sampling of ≥3 mediastinal nodal stations. Intraoperative mediastinal lymph node retrieval should be a focus of quality improvement for NSCLC resections.

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      ORAL34.06 - Impact of Surgeons' Attainment of Quality Resection Parameters on Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Patients' Survival (ID 2189)

      17:39 - 17:50  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      The 60,000 patients who annually undergo curative-intent resection for lung cancer in the US constitute the vast majority of long-term NSCLC survivors. However, >50% of patients die within 5 years after curative-intent resection. We sought to directly measure the effect of variability in surgeon practice on patients’ survival.

      Methods:
      We collected patient-level data from all NSCLC resections performed in 8 mid-south hospitals from 2009 to 2013. Recipients of preoperative adjuvant therapy were ineligible. We grouped surgeons by their resection proportions for pneumonectomy and wedge resection, resections with positive margins, and resections without mediastinal lymph nodes. We assigned scores of 1 = <5%, 2 = 5-15%, and 3 = ≥ 15% for pneumonectomy and wedge resection rates; 1 = <5%, 2 = 5-10%, and 3 = ≥ 10% for resections with positive margins; 1 = < 10%, 2 = 10-50%, and 3 = ≥ 50% for resections without mediastinal lymph node examination. The individual scores were then combined for an aggregate surgeon score. Surgeons were then grouped into three tiers: 1 =≤6, 2 = 7-8, and 3 = ≥9. A survival analysis was conducted for patients aggregated by surgeon score tier, adjusted for patient race, gender, and age at surgery, pathologic stage, and surgeon’s case-volume.

      Results:
      1,339 resections were performed by 39 surgeons: 17 surgeons (43.6%) in tier 1(aggregate score ≤ 6) operated on 623 patients (44.5%); 14 surgeons (35.9%) in tier 2 operated on 669 patients (47.8%); and 8 surgeons (25.5%) in tier 3 operated on 107 patients (7.65%). Figure 1 plots the Kaplan – Meier survival curve for patients in each surgeon tier. Tiers 2 and 3 patients had significantly higher hazard rates than tier 1 patients, with Hazard Ratio (HR)=1.76, 95%CI: 1.17, 2.64, p=.007 and HR=1.39, 95%CI: 1.11, 1.75, p=.004, respectively. Hazard rates between patients in surgeon tiers 3 and 2 were not significantly different, HR=1.26, 95%CI: 0.87, 1.82, p=.221. Figure 1



      Conclusion:
      We have developed a simple method of measuring the effect of variability in surgeon practice on patient outcomes. Patients who had resection by surgeons with lower rates of pneumonectomy and wedge resections, positive margins, and non-examination of mediastinal lymph nodes show improved survival over patients operated by surgeons with higher rates. Deficiency in attaining these quality parameters can be corrected at the individual surgeon level. Surgeon-level corrective interventions are warranted.

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      ORAL34.07 - Prevalence, Prognostic Implications and Survival Modulators of Incompletely Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) in the US (ID 650)

      17:50 - 18:01  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Presentation
      • Slides

      Background:
      The survival impact of incomplete resection of NSCLC has never been systematically quantified, nor has the value of postoperative adjuvant therapy in this situation. Current clinical practice guidelines are based on single-institutional retrospective studies with few patients. The studies have contradictory findings about the survival impact of non-R0 resection and the benefit of adjuvant therapy.

      Methods:
      We analyzed pathologic stage I-IIIA NSCLC resections in the National Cancer Data Base from 2004 to 2011 to determine clinical, socio-demographic and institutional factors associated with margin involvement using multivariate logistic regression models. We compared the survival of patients with and without positive margins and evaluated the impact of postoperative adjuvant therapy, using proportional hazards models.

      Results:
      Of 112,998 resections over 8 years, 5335 (4.72%) had positive margins. This population represents >4-fold the sum of all previous English-language publications on margin-positive resections. The annual incomplete resection rate was stable over the 8-year time-span, ranging between 4.38% and 5.23% (trend-test p=0.07). Patient demographic and clinical factors associated with increased adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of incomplete resection included black race (p=0.006), age-based Medicare insurance (p=0.006), urban residence (p=0.01), squamous histology, high tumor grade, tumor overlapping more than 1 lobe, tumor location in the main bronchus, and advanced pathologic stage (p < .001 for all clinical factors). Surgery performed at Community Cancer Programs (p=0.002), institutions with high proportions of underinsured patients (p=0.01), and institutions with lower cancer resection volumes (p=0.006), also had increased aOR. The crude 5-year survival rate of patients with complete v incomplete resection was 58.5% v 33.8% (p < 0.001). The survival difference persisted when patients were stratified by tumor size, T-category and aggregate American Joint Committee on Cancer stage. The survival curve of patients with margin-positive stage I disease overlapped that of patients with completely resected stage II. Patients with incompletely resected stage II disease had worse survival than those with completely resected stage III disease. The survival detriment was consistent at 1, 3, and 5 years. After incomplete resection, adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved 5-year survival across all stages (p<0.01); radiotherapy was associated with worse survival in stage I patients (p<0.001), and had no significant impact in patients with stage II and III disease; chemo-radiation therapy had no significant impact in patients with stage I, but was associated with improved survival in patients with stage II and III disease (p<0.001).

      Conclusion:
      Margin involvement significantly impaired survival after NSCLC resection, irrespective of stage. Causative institutional and provider practices should be identified, to minimize this adverse outcome. Postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy mitigated the mortality risk independently of stage, whilst postoperative radiotherapy exacerbated the risk in patients with stage I disease, and chemoradiation therapy was associated with improved survival in patients with stage II and III disease. These findings need validation in prospective clinical trials.

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    P1.12 - Poster Session/ Community Practice (ID 232)

    • Event: WCLC 2015
    • Type: Poster
    • Track: Community Practice
    • Presentations: 1
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      P1.12-001 - Trends in Accuracy and Comprehensiveness of Pathology Reports of Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) in a High Mortality Area of the US (ID 1571)

      09:30 - 09:30  |  Author(s): M.P. Smeltzer

      • Abstract
      • Slides

      Background:
      Pathologic examination of NSCLC resection specimens is vital to optimal treatment. In 2004, the College of American Pathologists (CAP) issued guidelines for NSCLC reporting, which were most recently updated in 2013. We evaluated the adoption of CAP reporting elements in a regional database.

      Methods:
      The Mid-South Quality of Surgical Resection (MS-QSR) database includes detailed information on 2,593 NSCLC resections in 11 institutions in 5 Dartmouth Hospital Referral Regions in Eastern Arkansas, North Mississippi and Western Tennessee from 2009-2014. In 2009, we started a multifaceted educational intervention: 1. Analyzed 2004-2008 pathology reports demonstrating the quality deficit in pathology reporting. 2. Recommended adoption of synoptic reporting of CAP checklist items. 3. Embedded a surgical intervention to improve mediastinal lymph node examination at some institutions. To allow for comparisons between eras and across the post-intervention era by intervention and type of hospital, we evaluated 4 groups: pre-intervention (pre-int), post-intervention participating hospital with surgical intervention (post-int/surg), post-intervention participating hospital without surgical intervention (post-int/non-surg), and non-participating non-surgical intervention hospital (post-int/non-part). We evaluated the inclusion of each CAP checklist item and the percent of cases with all items and 6 key items reported. We also evaluated the accuracy of T and N-stage categorization. Proportions reporting each item were compared between groups using Fisher’s Exact test.

      Results:
      Details of the completeness of pathology reporting are shown in Table 1 by group. The percent reporting the 6 key checklist items improved significantly from 63% pre-int to 76% post-int/non-part, 86% post-int/non-surg, and 95% post-int/surg (p-value<0.0001). A similar pattern of improvement was observed for N-stage (p-value<0.0001) and T-stage (p-value<0.0001) reporting. However, we observed significant decreases in the reporting of M-stage, and therefore all key items, post-intervention (p-value<0.0001). The accuracy of N-stage reporting improved significantly from 66% pre-int to 72% post-int/non-part, 86% post-int/non-surg, and 97% post-int/surg (p-value<0.0001). A similar trend was observed for T-stage accuracy (p-Value<0.0001).

      %Reporting Pre-Int (N=1390) Post-Int/ Non-Part (N=271) Post-Int/ No-Surg (N=645) Post-Int/ With-Surg (N=310) P-Value
      Specimen* 98.4 100 100 100 <0.0001
      TumorSize* 97.2 99.6 98.1 99.4 0.0094
      Histology* 99.8 99.6 99.5 99.7 0.59
      MarginStatus* 97.1 98.5 92.6 98.7 <0.0001
      T-Stage* 67.8 76.4 92.1 97.1 <0.0001
      N-Stage* 66.3 76.8 89.8 97.7 <0.0001
      *All Key-Items 62.7 75.7 85.7 94.8 <0.0001
      Laterality 99.8 100 99.5 100 0.56
      HistologicGrade 99.9 100 99.5 100 0.18
      M-Stage 75.8 31.4 25 21.6 <0.0001
      VascularInvasion 28.6 10.7 25 11.9 <0.0001
      All Items 10.7 4.1 6.2 3.2 <0.0001
      %Accurate
      N-Stage 66.2 71.6 86.2 96.8 <0.0001
      T-Stage 55.3 61.6 83 84.8 <0.0001


      Conclusion:
      There was significant improvement in reporting of CAP checklist items and the accuracy of pT- and pN-categorization. After the introduction of synoptic reporting, we observed a secular trend of improvement, shown by our post-int/non-part external control. Direct educational intervention in 2009-2010 further improved the completeness and accuracy of reports in participating hospitals. The surgical intervention provided additional benefit. Interventions to improve the quality of reporting for NSCLC are impactful on accuracy and thoroughness of reporting, thereby improving the quality of care.

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