Effects of Vasculogenic Mimicry on Postoperative Recurrence and Progression of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Vasculogenic mimicry (VM) in lung cancer shortens overall survival (OS) but its’ associations with postoperative recurrence and progression of early non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association of VM with postoperative recurrence and progression of NSCLC as well as the effect of VM on postoperative recurrence-free survival (RFS). This study included NSCLC patients and detected VM in surgical specimens. The associations of VM with the recurrence and progression were analyzed to assess the effect of VM on postoperative RFS in NSCLC. A total of 80 NSCLC cases were followed up for 3 years. During follow-up, 35 cases showed recurrence and progression where 5 (6.25%) cases had simple local recurrence and the other 30 (37.5%) cases had distant metastasis. The recurrence and progression rates in the first, second, and third years were 12.50%, 23.75%, and 7.50%, respectively. The median RFS was 14.2 months. VM was detected in 30 out of 80 cases and was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation (r = 0.365) and clinical stage (r = 0.374) (both, P = 0.001). Local recurrence of NSCLC was not correlated with VM, unlike distant metastasis (r = 0.598, P < 0.001). Average RFS was significantly longer in NSCLC patients without VM compared with the VM group 3 years post-operation (32 months versus 18 months, log-rank test P < 0.001). Considering these, VM is significantly correlated with postoperative distant metastasis of NSCLC in which it is of a certain value for predicting poor prognosis in NSCLC.