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. 2024 Nov;485(5):869-878.
doi: 10.1007/s00428-024-03886-6. Epub 2024 Oct 25.

Exploratory evidence maps for the WHO Classification of Tumours 5th edition for lung and thymus tumors

Christine Giesen #  1 , Javier Del Águila Mejía #  2   3 , Subasri Armon  2   4 , Ramon Cierco Jimenez  2 , Nickolas Myles  2   5 , Gabrielle Goldman-Lévy  2 , Alberto Machado  2 , Iciar Indave  2 , Ian A Cree  2 , Dilani Lokuhetty  2 ; WCT EVI MAP
Collaborators, Affiliations

Exploratory evidence maps for the WHO Classification of Tumours 5th edition for lung and thymus tumors

Christine Giesen et al. Virchows Arch. 2024 Nov.

Abstract

The WHO Classification of Tumours (WCT) guides cancer diagnosis, treatment, and research. However, research evidence in pathology continuously changes, and new evidence emerges. Correct assessment of evidence in the WCT 5th edition (WCT-5) and identification of high level of evidence (LOE) studies based on study design are needed to improve future editions. We aimed at producing exploratory evidence maps for WCT-5 Thoracic Tumours, specifically lung and thymus tumors. We extracted citations from WCT-5, and imported and coded them in EPPI-Reviewer. The maps were plotted using EPPI-Mapper. Maps displayed tumor types (columns), descriptors (rows), and LOE (bubbles using a four-color code). We included 1434 studies addressing 51 lung, and 677 studies addressing 25 thymus tumor types from WCT-5 thoracic tumours volume. Overall, 87.7% (n = 1257) and 80.8% (n = 547) references were low, and 4.1% (n = 59) and 2.2% (n = 15) high LOE for lung and thymus tumors, respectively. Invasive non-mucinous adenocarcinoma of the lung (n = 215; 15.0%) and squamous cell carcinoma of the thymus (n = 93; 13.7%) presented the highest number of references. High LOE was observed for colloid adenocarcinoma of the lung (n = 11; 18.2%) and type AB thymoma (n = 4; 1.4%). Tumor descriptors with the highest number of citations were prognosis and prediction (n = 273; 19.0%) for lung, and epidemiology (n = 186; 28.0%) for thymus tumors. LOE was generally low for lung and thymus tumors. This study represents an initial step in the WCT Evidence Gap Map (WCT-EVI-MAP) project for mapping references in WCT-5 for all tumor types to inform future WCT editions.

Keywords: Cancer research; Evidence maps; Level of evidence; WHO tumor classification.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Since we developed maps based on published literature and no patient was involved in this study, no Ethics Review Board approval was necessary. Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Extract of the exploratory evidence map for WCT-5 for thoracic tumors, tumors of the lung chapter (n = 1434)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of references per level of evidence and tumor types for WCT-5 for thoracic tumors, tumors of the lung chapter (n = 1434)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Extract of exploratory evidence map for WCT-5 for thoracic tumors, tumors of the thymus chapter (n = 677)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Number of references per level of evidence and tumor types for WCT-5 for thoracic tumors, tumors of the thymus chapter (n = 677)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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