早期CT扫描漏诊肿瘤肺转移病例特征分析

背景：肺是原发性肺癌，乳腺癌，肝癌，结直肠癌、食管癌转移的目标器官之一。尽管计算机断层扫描（CT）是检查肺部转移最广泛的应用方法，但发现早期的肺转移灶仍具有非常大的挑战性。如果能在最早的时间点上，经胸部CT扫描而发现肺转移，可能会改变癌症的分期，并且该信息可能会影响临床治疗决策，将使患者受益。本研究的目的是探究CT扫描是否可以在比当前更早的时间节点上发现肺转移。 方法：于2016年1月至2020年1月随机选择120例肺转移患者的CT检查影像及临床病史资料，并回顾性分析扫描结果。这120例患者患有原发性肺癌、食道癌、肠癌及肝癌。经过后来CT扫描证实有肺部转移的患者均进行了多次胸部CT检查（包括术前胸部CT）。检查早期的CT扫描以确定是否在相同位置的肺转移灶已被诊断或漏诊。根据原发癌的类型和邻近血管的分类对肺转移的漏诊进行统计分析。 结果：漏诊的肺转移病例为42/120（35％），其中单发转移为21例，多发转移为21例。遗漏转移的地方，在肺段区域中分布有统计学差异（P <0.01）。临近血管、胸膜或叶间裂似乎是漏诊肺转移的重要因素（P <0.01）。 结论：在CT扫描中出现的早期肺转移有相当一部分被放射科医生漏诊。通过培训改进以及技术发展（例如计算机辅助检测），CT扫描可以在更早的时间节点上诊断出肺转移，为临床治疗方案制定提供依据，从而使患者受益。

Retrospective analysis of missed diagnosis of early lung metastase focuse on CT image

Background: Lungs are one of the target organs of metastases of primary lung, breast, liver, colorectal, and esophageal cancer. While computed tomography (CT) is the most widely used modality for detecting lung metastases, it is still very challenging to detect them at the earlier stages. If lung metastases could be found on CT scans at the earliest time points, patients would benefit by developing a corresponding treatment plan or beginning treatment earlier. The objective of this study was to demonstrate that CT can reveal lung metastases in many cases at even earlier stages than current radiological practice may find. Methods: From January 2016 to January 2020, one hundred and twenty patients with lung metastases were randomly selected and their surveillance CT scans were analyzed retrospectively. The patients had primary cancer in the breasts, lungs, esophagus, colorectum, and liver. All patients had multiple CT examinations of the lungs and their metastases, if any, were confirmed by subsequent CT scans. The earliest CT scans were examined to determine whether lung metastases at the same locations had been diagnosed or missed. Missed lung metastases, categorized by type of the primary cancer and adjacency to nearby blood vessels, were statistically analyzed. Results: There were 42/120 (35%) cases of missed lung metastases, including 21 cases of single metastasis and 21 cases of multiple metastases. Where metastases were missed, there was a statistically significant difference in their distribution within the sub-regions of the lungs (P<0.01). Adjacency to blood vessels, pleura, or interlobular fissures appeared to be a significant factor in metastases being missed during diagnosis (P<0.01). Conclusions: There was a considerable percentage of early lung metastases that were missed by radiologists but actually appeared on CT scans. The capability of CT to reveal such early metastases opens up an opportunity to move up the time points of detecting lung metastases through training improvement and technology development such as computer-aided detection.