Interobserver Variability in Diagnosing High-Grade Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Lung and Comparing It with the Morphometric Analysis
하승연, 한정호, 김완섭, 서병성, 노미숙,
소속 상세정보
하승연 ( Ha Seung-Yeon )
Gachon University Gil Hospital Department of Pathology
한정호 ( Han Joung-Ho )
Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine Department of Pathology
김완섭 ( Kim Wan-Seop )
Konkuk University College of Medicine Department of Pathology
서병성 ( Suh Byung-Seong )
Sungkyunkwan University Kangbuk Samsung Hospital Department of Occupational Medicine
노미숙 ( Roh Mee-Sook )
Dong-A University College of Medicine Department of Pathology
KMID : 0357920120460010042
Abstract
Background: Distinguishing small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) of the lung is difficult with little information about interobserver variability.
Methods: One hundred twenty-nine cases of resected SCLC and LCNEC were independently evaluated by four pathologists and classified according to the 2004 World Health Organization criteria. Agreement was regarded as “unanimous” if all four pathologists agreed on the classification. The kappa statistic was calculated to measure the degree of agreement between pathologists. We also measured cell size using image analysis, and receiver-operating-characteristic curve analysis was performed to evaluate cell size in predicting the diagnosis of high-grade neuroendocrine (NE) carcinomas in 66 cases.
Results: Unanimous agreement was achieved in 55.0% of 129 cases. The kappa values ranged from 0.35 to 0.81. Morphometric analysis reaffirmed that there was a continuous spectrum of cell size from SCLC to LCNEC and showed that tumors with cells falling in the middle size range were difficult to categorize and lacked unanimous agreement.
Conclusions: Our results provide an objective explanation for considerable interobserver variability in the diagnosis of high-grade pulmonary NE carcinomas. Further studies would need to define more stringent and objective definitions of cytologic and architectural characteristics to reliably distinguish between SCLC and LCNEC.
키워드
Lung; Small cell lung carcinoma; Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma; Observer variation; Image analysis
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