Stereological estimates of nuclear star volume and vessels as predictors of chemotherapy response in small cell carcinoma of the lung: a preliminary report

Aims: This study was designed to evaluate the role of morphometric and clin ical parameters in predicting chemotherapy responder patients with small ce ll carcinoma of the lung. Methods and results: Morphometric studies were performed by means of point counting techniques. Forty-six patients were included in this study. Group 1 patients (n = 19) were these without response to chemotherapy; Group 2 (n = 27) was composed by patients with partial or complete response to chemot herapy. Logistic regression analysis was used to attain the best separation of non-responder from responder patients, Star volume of the nuclei and ve ssel were selected during the backward procedure as relevant variables to c haracterize the two groups of patients. The overall sensitivity of the mode l was 80.43%. Conclusions: Our results indicate that histopathological data may help to p redict the chemotherapy response in patients with small cell lung carcinoma , and encourage the use of morphometric procedures in histopathological ana lysis of this type of lung tumours.