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. 2020 Jul 21:10:1059.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.01059. eCollection 2020.

The Epidemiology of Ground Glass Opacity Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Network-Based Cumulative Meta-Analysis

Xiongfei Li  1   2 , Fan Ren  1   2 , Shuhang Wang  3 , Zhicheng He  4 , Zuoqing Song  1   2 , Jun Chen  1   2 , Song Xu  1   2
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Free PMC article

The Epidemiology of Ground Glass Opacity Lung Adenocarcinoma: A Network-Based Cumulative Meta-Analysis

Xiongfei Li et al. Front Oncol. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

Introduction: Due to the introduction of low-dose computed tomography (CT) and screening procedures, the proportion of early-stage lung cancer with ground glass opacity (GGO) manifestation is increasing in clinical practice. However, its epidemiological characteristics is still not fully investigated. Methods: We retrieved all solitary GGO adenocarcinoma lung cancer (ADLC) on the PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases until January 1, 2019 and extracted the general information to perform the meta-analysis, mainly focusing on age, gender, and smoking status. Results: A total of 8,793 solitary GGO ADLC patients from 53 studies were included in this analysis. The final pooled analysis showed that the female proportion, average diagnosis age, and non-smoking proportion of solitary GGO ADLC was 0.62 (95% CI, 0.60-0.64), 56.97 (95% CI, 54.56-59.37), and 0.72 (95% CI, 0.66-0.77), respectively. The cumulative meta-analysis and meta-trend analysis confirmed that the average age at diagnosis has been decreasing while the non-smoking proportion significantly increased in the past two decades. Conclusions: From our epidemiological analysis, it demonstrates that the clinical characteristics of GGO lung cancer patients may be out of the high-risk factors. Therefore, we propose to reconsider the risk assessment and current lung cancer screening criteria.

Keywords: cumulative meta-analysis; epidemiological trends; ground glass opacity; lung adenocarcinoma; lung cancer screening criteria.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of studies identification and selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The meta-analysis forest map of the female rate of solitary ground glass opacity (GGO) adenocarcinoma lung cancer (ADLC).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The meta-analysis forest maps, funnel plot with non-parametric trim-and-fill method for solitary ground glass opacity (GGO) adenocarcinoma lung cancer (ADLC). (A) The meta-analysis forest map of the average diagnosis age; (B) the meta-analysis forest map of the non-smoking rate; (C) the funnel plot of average age group with non-parametric trim and fill method; (D) the funnel plot of non-smoking rate group with non-parametric trim and fill method.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The cumulative meta-analysis forest maps and meta-trend analysis for solitary ground glass opacity (GGO) adenocarcinoma lung cancer (ADLC), as sorted by years. (A) The cumulative meta-analysis forest map of the female rate; (B) the cumulative meta-analysis forest map of the non-smoking rate; (C) the trend analysis for the cumulative meta-analysis of the female rate; (D) the trend analysis for the cumulative meta-analysis of the non-smoking rate.
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