Development and validation of a nomogram for predicting prognosis of high-grade chondrosarcoma: A surveillance, epidemiology, and end results-based population analysis.

BACKGROUND: The incidence of chondrosarcoma is increasing every year, and the treatment and prognosis of patients with high-grade chondrosarcoma are becoming more and more important. Nomogram is a tool that can quickly and easily predict the overall survival of tumor patients. Therefore, the development and validation of a nomogram to predict overall survival in patients with high-grade chondrosarcoma was desired. METHODS: We retrospectively collected 396 patients with high-grade chondrosarcoma from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2004 to 2015. Randomly divided into model and validation groups, the best cut-off values for age and tumor size grouping were derived by using X-tile software. Then, independent prognostic factors for high-grade chondrosarcoma were derived by SPSS.26 univariate and multivariate Cox analyses analysis in the model group, and the model was evaluated by using R software, using C-indix and ROC curves, and finally these independent prognostic factors were included in Nomogram. RESULTS: 396 patients were randomly assigned to the modelling group (n = 280) or the validation group (n = 116). Age, tissue-type, tumor size, AJCC stage, regional expansion and surgery were identified as independent prognostic factors (p < 0.05) which further combined to construct a nomogram. The C-index of internal validation for overall survival(OS) was 0.757, while the C-index of external validation for overall survival(OS) was 0.832. Both internal and external calibration curves show a good agreement between nomogram prediction and actual survival. CONCLUSION: In this study, we established age, tumour size, AJCC stage, tissue type, surgery and tumor extension as independent prognostic factors for high-grade chondrosarcoma and constructed a nomogram to predict 3- and 5-year survival rates for high-grade chondrosarcoma.

Prognostic and clinicopathological significance of tumor-stroma ratio in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review

Background: Analysis of the tumor microenvironment has been proposed as a strategy for the treatment and prognosis of different neoplastic processes. A grading system based on the tumor-stroma ratio (TSR), which evaluates theproportion of stroma in relation to neoplastic parenchyma at the invasion front, has shown a strong prognostic valuein different neoplastic processes. The aim of the present systematic review was to understand the role of the TSR inhead and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), evaluating its correlation with clinical and prognostic parameters.Material and Methods: An electronic search was performed in PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Science Direct,Scopus, Embase, and the Cochrane Collaboration Library. Publications assessing the relationship between TSRand prognosis in cases of HNSCC were eligible. The quality of the studies was assessed independently by fourevaluators using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.Results: After application of the previously es+lished inclusion/exclusion criteria, nine articles were included inthe qualitative synthesis. With regards to quality on the Newcastle-Ottawa scale, an overall value of 4.55 was obtained. This systematic review demonstrated a strong association between TSR and prognosis in esophageal andoral squamous cell carcinomas.Conclusions: Histopathological analysis of the TSR can optimize the analysis of the prognosis of cases diagnosedwith HNSSC. In addition, the TSR is a reliable and simple parameter that can be evaluated in hematoxylin/eosinstained slides during routine laboratory examinations, showing high inter- and intraobserver agreement. (AU)