Background: Margin distance contributes to survival and recurrence during wedge resections for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. The Initiative for Early Lung Cancer Research on Treatment sought to standardize a surgeon-measured margin intraoperatively.
Methods: Lung cancer patients who underwent wedge resection were reviewed. Margins were measured by the surgeon twice as per a standardized protocol. Intraobserver variability as well as surgeon-pathologist variability were compared.
Results: Forty-five patients underwent wedge resection. Same-surgeon measurement analysis indicated good reliability with a small mean difference and narrow limit of agreement for the two measures. The median surgeon-measured margin was 18.0 mm, median pathologist-measured margin was 16.0 mm and the median difference between the surgeon-pathologist margin was -1.0 mm, ranging from -18.0 to 12.0 mm. Bland-Altman analysis for margin measurements demonstrated a mean difference of 0.65 mm. The limit of agreement for the two approaches were wide, with the difference lying between -16.25 and 14.96 mm.
Conclusions: A novel protocol of surgeon-measured margin was evaluated and compared with pathologist-measured margin. High intraobserver agreement for repeat surgeon measurements yet low-to-moderate correlation or directionality between surgeon and pathologic measurements were found.
Discussion: A standardized protocol may reduce variability in pathologic assessment. These findings have critical implications considering the impact of margin distance on outcomes.
Keywords: early stage NSCLC; measurement variability; recurrence; tumor margin distance; wedge resection.
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