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Review
. 2021 Nov 15;135(2):127-136.
doi: 10.1097/CM9.0000000000001802.

Primary tumor location in lung cancer: the evaluation and administration

Xueqi Xie  1 , Xiaolin Li  2 , Wenjie Tang  1   2 , Peng Xie  2 , Xuefen Tan  2
Affiliations
Review

Primary tumor location in lung cancer: the evaluation and administration

Xueqi Xie et al. Chin Med J (Engl). .

Abstract

Lung cancer continues to be the leading cause of cancer-related death in the world, which is classically subgrouped into two major histological types: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (85% of patients) and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) (15%). Tumor location has been reported to be associated with the prognosis of various solid tumors. Several types of cancer often occur in a specific region and are more prone to spread to predilection locations, including colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, gastric cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, bladder cancer, lung tumor, and so on. Besides, tumor location is also considered as a risk factor for lung neoplasm with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/emphysema. Additionally, the primary lung cancer location is associated with specific lymph node metastasis. And the recent analysis has shown that the primary location may affect metastasis pattern in metastatic NSCLC based on a large population. Numerous studies have enrolled the "location" factor in the risk model. Anatomy location and lobe-specific location are both important in prognosis. Therefore, it is important for us to clarify the characteristics about tumor location according to various definitions. However, the inconsistent definitions about tumor location among different articles are controversial. It is also a significant guidance in multimode therapy in the present time. In this review, we mainly aim to provide a new insight about tumor location, including anatomy, clinicopathology, and prognosis in patients with lung neoplasm.

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The different definitions of location in lung cancer. SBRT: Stereotactic body radiotherapy; SABR: Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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