Nomogram to predict survival of pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma after surgery

Abstract

Background Pulmonary large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) is a rare primary malignant tumor with a poor prognosis, and surgery is the main treatment. However, there are no effective predictive tools to assess the prognosis of postoperative patients. Our aim is to identify prognostic factors and construct nomogram to accurately assess prognosis. Methods Patients were identified in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Based on the results of Cox regression analysis, construct nomogram for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival. The predictive performance of nomogram was evaluated using the consistency index (C-index), the area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC), and calibration plots. Results We finally screened 903 patients with pulmonary LCNEC who underwent surgery. The Cox regression analysis showed that age, SEER stage, T stage, N stage, M stage, tumor size, and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors for overall survival (P<0.05). The C-index of the nomogram is 0.681 on the training cohort and 0.675 on the validation cohort. The AUC and calibration plots show that the nomogram has good performance. Conclusion We constructed and validated nomogram for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival of patients with pulmonary LCNEC after surgery. Our nomogram provides reference information for assessing the overall survival of these patients.