title: Clinical analysis of 50 Eastern Asian patients with primary pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To understand the clinicopathological features of patients with primary pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC), including the frequency of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation, and to explore prognostic factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  We investigated a cohort of 50 individuals from our center database who were diagnosed with operable pulmonary LCNEC and treated in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. Serum albumin (ALB) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) were also collected. Survival curves were obtained with the Kaplan-Meier method, and the differences between groups in survival were tested by the log-rank test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median age was 59 years (range, 40-80 years). Fourteen patients underwent mutational analysis of EGFR; of these, 12 had wild-type EGFR and the remaining two had EGFR mutations in exons. The median disease-free survival (DFS) of pulmonary LCNEC was 49.3 months and that of overall survival (OS) was not reached. DFS and OS were shorter for patients with decreased serum ALB than for patients with normal serum ALB (P=0.003 and P=0.004, respectively). Meanwhile, a high level of NSE was also significantly associated with short DFS and OS (P=0.005 and P=0.000, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that decrease in serum ALB was an independent prognostic factor for OS (P=0.046).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The frequency of EGFR mutation in LCNEC patients is low. Serum ALB and NSE levels are valuable prognostic factors for LCNEC patients.
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin-Ke
authors.initials: XK
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China ; Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yin-Duo
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yuan-Yuan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Wen-Feng
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shao-Dong
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Huang
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yun-Peng
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yu-Xiang
authors.initials: YX
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hong-Yun
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: ALB; EGFR; NSE; prognosis; pulmonary large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma