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. 2023 Jul 12;18(7):e0288492. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288492

Epidemiology and nomogram of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis: A SEER analysis

Tao Liu 1, Lin Cui 2, Zongyun He 1, Zhe Chen 1, Haibing Tao 1, Jin Yang 1,*
Editor: Filomena de Nigris3
PMCID: PMC10337906  PMID: 37437020

Abstract

Background

Patients with osteosarcoma and synchronous lung metastasis (SLM) have poor survival. This study aimed to explore the epidemiology data and construct a predictive nomogram to identify cases at risk of SLM occurrence among pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients.

Methods

All data were extracted from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 17 registries. The age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) and annual percentage change was evaluated, and reported for the overall population and by age, gender, race, and primary site. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify risk factors associated with SLM occurrence, then significant factors were used to develop the nomogram. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and calibration curve were used to evaluated the predictive power of the nomogram. Survival analysis was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. Multivariate Cox analysis was used to determine the prognostic factors.

Results

A total of 278 out of 1965 patients (14.1%) presented with SLM at diagnosis. The ASIR increased significant from 0.46 to 0.66 per 1,000,000 person-years from year 2010 to 2019, with an annual percentage change of 3.5, mainly in patients with age 10–19 years, male and appendicular location. All patients were randomly assigned into train cohort and validation cohort with a spilt of 7:3. In the train cohort, higher tumor grade, bigger tumor size, positive lymph nodes and other site-specific metastases (SSM) were identified as significant risk factors associated with SLM occurrence. Then a nomogram was developed based on the four factors. The AUC and calibration curve in both train and validation cohorts demonstrated that the nomogram had moderate predictive power. The median cancer-specific survival was 25 months. Patients with age 20–39 years, male, positive lymph nodes, other SSM were adverse prognostic factors, while surgery was protective factor.

Conclusions

This study performed a comprehensive analysis regarding pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients had SLM. A visual, clinically operable, and easy-to-interpret nomogram model was developed for predicting the risk of SLM, which could be used in clinic and help clinicians make better decisions.

Introduction

Osteosarcoma, the most common primary malignant bone tumor occurs in adolescence and those aged > 60 years [1]. This cancer affected male more frequently than females, with a ratio of 1.4:1 [2]. Nonetheless, it only represents less than 1% of all diagnosed cancer cases [3]. The incidence of osteosarcoma peaks at those with 10–19 years [3], and accounts for approximately 2% of children (1 to 14 years) and 3% of adolescents (15 to 19 years) with malignancy [4]. Different from occurring more frequently in axial locations among older patients, the osteosarcoma in young patients often arises in the metaphysis of long bones [58]. It might be associated with the rapid proliferation of bone, which is related to the growth spurt during puberty [2].

Compared to an improvement of long-term survival from 20% to over 70% among non-metastatic osteosarcoma patients, the survival of metastatic osteosarcoma patients remains poor, with only about 20% to 30% [9,10]. The poor survival of metastatic osteosarcoma is mainly due to the lung metastasis, which is the most prevalent metastatic type of metastatic osteosarcoma, accounting for more than 80% of the metastatic cases [11,12]. Thus, to identify patient at a high risk of lung metastasis and initiate timely treatment could be a way to improve the survival of these patients.

Currently, a few studies explored the risk factors of lung metastasis occurrence and constructed predictive models [10,13,14]. However, no study focuses on the risk factors for pediatric and young adulthood patients. Besides, the machine learning models are hard to interpret in clinical. Hence, this study aimed to describe the epidemiological trend of synchronous lung metastasis (SLM) at diagnosis in pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients, and identify risk factors and develop a clinically operable and easy-to-interpret nomogram model by using the big data from Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.

Methods

SEER study population

The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) SEER program collects the population-based cancer data in the US. In this part, all data were extracted from SEER 17 registries, November 2021 submission (2000–2019), representing approximately 26.5% of the US population. Because the details of site-specific metastasis, including bone, brain, liver, and lung metastases, are provided since year 2010, all data were extracted since then. The criteria used to identify eligible cases and the study design were presented in S1 Fig.

The following variables were extracted from the database, including year of diagnosis, age (1–9 years, 10–19 years, and 20–39 years), race (white, black, and others), gender (male and female), primary site (appendicular [C40.0-C40.9] and axial [C41.0-C41.9]), tumor grade (low-grade [I/II], high-grade [III/IV], and unknown), tumor size (<5cm, 5-10cm, ≥10cm, unknown), lymph node status (negative, positive, and unknown), and site-specific metastasis. Except for synchronous lung metastasis, all other three site-specific metastases at diagnosis were grouped into one variable, i.e., SSM, with a yes denoted one or more other three site-specific metastases. Treatment information included surgery, radiotherapy, and systemic treatment.

Age-standardized incidence rate

The age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) was calculated by the SEER*Stat software (version 8.4.0.1; https://seer.cancer.gov/seerstat/). The incidence was age-standardized to the 2000 US standard population. The expression was presented as per 1,000,000 persons, and reported for the overall population and by age, gender, race, and primary site.

The annual percentage change (APC) of incidence was used to measure trends or the change in rates over time, which was quantified by the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI’s) Joinpoint Regression Program (version 4.9.0.0; https://surveillance.cancer.gov/joinpoint/). The APC was calculated by fitting a least squares regression line to the natural logarithm of the rates, using the calendar year as a regressor variable. This value was compared to zero to indicate statistics significance.

Nomogram

All identified pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients were randomly divided into train dataset and validation dataset with a split of 7:3. The clinical characteristics comparison between train dataset and validation dataset was performed by Pearson’s chi-square test. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to identify risk factors associated with SLM occurrence in the train dataset. Then a nomogram for predicting the probability of SLM occurrence at diagnosis was developed based on significant factors. The discriminative ability of the nomogram and each variable were evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The calibration curve was used to measure the differences between the predicted and observed outcomes.

Other statistical analyses

Baseline clinical characteristics of all pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients were described as frequencies and compared by Pearson’s chi-square test. The cancer-specific survival (CSS) was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and the log-rank test. Multivariate Cox analysis was performed to determine the prognostic factors associated with CSS. The CSS was defined as the time from diagnosis of osteosarcoma to the death because of osteosarcoma. Cases died of other reasons or unknown reasons or alive were regarded as censored. The last follow-up time was 31 Dec, 2019. Two-sided P-value < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistically significant difference.

Results

Population

A total of 1,965 pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients were identified. Among them, 278 out of 1965 patients presented with SLM at diagnosis, accounting for 14.1%. The comparison of baseline clinical characteristics between the two cohorts was summarized in Table 1. Compared to patients without SLM, those with SLM had high proportions of aging 10–19 years (62 vs. 45%, P < 0.001), male patients (63 vs. 55%, P < 0.019), locating in appendicular (83 vs. 77%, P = 0.023), high grade (73 vs. 53%, P < 0.001), tumor size equal or larger than 10cm (58 vs. 33%, P < 0.001), positive lymph node (8 vs. 1%, P < 0.001) and other SSM (18 vs. 1%, P < 0.001).

Table 1. Baseline characteristics comparison between pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with and without synchronous lung metastasis.

Variables Total, N = 1,965 (%) Without SLM, N = 1,687 (%) With SLM, N = 278 (%) P-value
Age (years) < 0.001
 1–9 203 (10) 167 (10) 36 (13)
 10–19 938 (48) 766 (45) 172 (62)
 20–39 824 (42) 754 (45) 70 (25)
Race 0.418
 White 1,486 (76) 1,278 (76) 208 (75)
 Black 268 (14) 224 (13) 44 (16)
 Others 211 (11) 185 (11) 26 (9)
Gender 0.019
 Male 1,099 (56) 925 (55) 174 (63)
 Female 866 (44) 762 (45) 104 (37)
Year of diagnosis 0.950
 2010 152 (8) 131 (8) 21 (8)
 2011 203 (10) 179 (11) 24 (9)
 2012 188 (10) 159 (9) 29 (10)
 2013 178 (9) 153 (9) 25 (9)
 2014 221 (11) 194 (11) 27 (10)
 2015 205 (10) 176 (10) 29 (10)
 2016 203 (10) 170 (10) 33 (12)
 2017 204 (10) 177 (10) 27 (10)
 2018 207 (11) 174 (10) 33 (12)
 2019 204 (10) 174 (10) 30 (11)
Primary site 0.023
 Appendicular 1,526 (78) 1,295 (77) 231 (83)
 Axial 439 (22) 392 (23) 47 (17)
Tumor grade < 0.001
 Low grade 420 (21) 412 (24) 8 (3)
 High grade 1,100 (56) 898 (53) 202 (73
 Unknown 445 (23) 377 (22) 68 (24)
Tumor size (cm) < 0.001
 < 5 298 (15) 288 (17) 10 (4)
 5–10 684 (35) 619 (37) 65 (23)
 ≥ 10 719 (37) 559 (33) 160 (58)
 Unknown 264 (13) 221 (13) 43 (15)
Lymph node status < 0.001
 Negative 1,781 (91) 1,548 (92) 233 (84)
 Positive 43 (2) 20 (1) 23 (8)
 Unknown 141 (7) 119 (7) 22 (8)
Other SSM < 0.001
 No 1,892 (96) 1,663 (99) 229 (82)
 Yes 73 (4) 24 (1) 49 (18)

SLM, synchronous lung metastasis; SSM, site-specific metastasis.

Trends in cancer incidence

The ASIR of all pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients changed from 3.31 per 1,000,000 person-years in year 2010 to 4.42 per 1,000,000 person-years in 2019, with no significant APC (1.7, 95%CI -0.7–4.1, P = 0.141). The ASIR of patients with SLM increased significant from 0.46 to 0.66 per 1,000,000 person-years from year 2010 to 2019, with an APC of 3.5 (95%CI, 0.9–6.1, P = 0.015) (Fig 1, S1 Table). Among patient with SLM, the ASIR was higher in subgroups of aging 10–19 years (ASIR 1.05–1.33 from 2010 to 2019; APC 4.1, P = 0.098), male patients (ASIR 0.59–0.74; APC 2.7, P = 0.090), and appendicular (ASIR 0.41–0.58; APC 4.1, P = 0.020) (Fig 2, Table 2 and S1 Table). The ASIRs among other subgroups showed no significant changes. Among different races, no obvious difference was found.

Fig 1. Age-standardized incidence rate of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patient, United States, 2010 to 2019.

Fig 1

A) Overall, B) With synchronous lung metastasis. ASIR, age-standardized incidence rate; SLM, synchronous lung metastasis.

Fig 2. Age-standardized incidence rate of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patient with synchronous lung metastasis, United States, 2010 to 2019.

Fig 2

A) By age, B) By gender, C) By race, D) By primary site. ASIR, age-standardized incidence rate.

Table 2. Trends in age-standardized incidence rate of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis, United States, 2010 to 2019.

APC (95% CI) P value
Overall 3.5 (0.9–6.1) 0.015
Age (years)
 1–9 2.4 (-30.7–51.4) 0.891
 10–19 4.1 (-0.9–9.4) 0.098
 20–39 0.3 (-8.2–9.6) 0.931
Race
 White 2.9 (-2.3–8.5) 0.239
 Black 5.6 (-4.9–17.3) 0.262
 Others 1.5 (-7.6–11.4) 0.729
Sex
 Male 2.7 (-0.5–6.0) 0.090
 Female 4.8 (-3.0–13.2) 0.204
Primary site
 Appendicular 4.1 (0.8–7.4) 0.020
 Axial -0.4 (-11.1–11.5) 0.933

APC, annual percent change; CI, confidence interval.

Nomogram for predicting the probability of synchronous lung metastasis occurrence

All pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients were randomly assigned into train cohort and validation cohort with a spilt of 7:3. The comparison of clinical characteristics between these two cohorts was shown in S2 Table, which showed balanced clinical characteristics between two cohorts. Next, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed with the data of train cohort. The results turned out that higher tumor grade, bigger tumor size, positive lymph nodes and other SSM were significant risk factors associated with SLM occurrence (S3 Table). And then a nomogram was developed for predicting the probability of synchronous lung metastasis occurrence with these four variables. As shown in Fig 3, each value of each variable was awarded a corresponding point according to the point scale, and the total points could be used for estimating the probability. The details of the points were summarized in S4 Table. According to the scale of total point, a total point less than 132 was regarded as low-risk group (a probability of risk less than 30%), a total point between 132 and 198 was regarded as median-risk group (a probability of risk between 30% and 70%), and a total point higher than 198 was regarded as high-risk group (a probability of risk over 70%).

Fig 3. A nomogram for predicting the risk of synchronous lung metastasis.

Fig 3

To test the predictive ability of the nomograms, AUC and calibration plot were generated both in the train and validation cohorts. The AUC of the nomogram was 0.76 (95% CI 0.73–0.80) for train cohort and 0.76 (95% CI 0.71–0.81) for validation cohort, respectively. And that was much higher than each variable (Fig 4A and 4B). In addition, the calibration plots showed identified results between predicted probability and observed probability both in the train and validation cohorts (Fig 4C and 4D).

Fig 4. Receiver operating characteristics curves and calibration curves for the nomogram.

Fig 4

A) Receiver operating characteristics curves in the train cohort, B) Receiver operating characteristics curves in the validation cohort, C) calibration curve in the train cohort, D) calibration curve in the validation cohort. SSM, site-specific metastasis.

Cancer-specific survival and prognostic factors

Among patients with SLM, approximately 96.4% and 74.8% of them respectively received systemic treatment and surgery during the first-course treatment. While approximately 12.2% of them received radiotherapy. The median CSS was 25 months (95% CI 21–32 months, Fig 5). The multivariate Cox analysis turned out that patients with age 20–39 years, male, positive lymph nodes, other SSM had dismal survival (S5 Table). Surgery was a protective factor for CSS, while radiotherapy and systemic treatment had no obviously impact on CSS (S5 Table).

Fig 5. Survival plot for pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patient with synchronous lung metastasis.

Fig 5

CSS, cancer-specific survival.

Discussion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of attempting to describe the epidemiology, and identify risk factors and prognostic factors for pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with SLM, by using the SEER database. The result turned out that, between year 2010 and 2019, approximately 14.1% of all pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients developed a SLM at diagnosis. The rate was lower than that of entire osteosarcoma patients with SLM, mainly because of a relatively higher proportion of SLM in the elder patients [13,14]. The incidence of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients increased slightly with statistical significance from year 2010 to 2019. In addition, the increase was mainly pronounced among age 10–19 years, male patients, and appendicular location. However, no obvious difference was found among different races. Two earlier studies reported the epidemiology of all osteosarcoma patients, a higher incidence was also found in age 10–19 years, male patients, and appendicular location, respectively, comparted to the counterpart [1,3]. Besides a higher incidence was also found in black population and tumor grade of IV. But for difference tumor stage, the incidences were more pronounced in patients with localized and regional stages [1].

A few previous studies with SEER database reported clinical risk factors for lung metastases in entire osteosarcoma patients, including advanced age, gender, large tumor size, higher N stage, advanced tumor grade, presence of bone and/or brain metastases, and axial location [10,1315]. In this study, among pediatric and young adulthood patients, we also found that advanced tumor grade, larger tumor size, positive lymph node, and other SSM were significant risk factors with SLM at diagnosis. Of note, gender and primary site were not associated with SLM in this study. More importantly, we firstly constructed a visual, clinically operable, and easy-to-interpret nomogram model for predicting the risk of SLM in pediatric and young adulthood patients. The much higher AUC of nomogram, and the identified results between predicted outcome and observed outcome suggested that the nomogram had an obvious advantage in predicting the risk of SLM, which could be used in clinic and help clinicians make better decisions.

For nonmetastatic osteosarcoma patients, lung metastasis was also the most common site in the later stage of disease, with a rate of approximately 40–55% [16]. Besides, a study reported that approximately one out of three localized osteosarcoma patients would relapse, mainly due to the lung metastases [17]. The underlying mechanisms of lung metastasis is unclear, some potential factors might be associated with subsequent lung metastasis. A study demonstrated that cytoplasmatic monocyte ratio and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio were associated with lung metastasis [18]. A meta-analysis found that clinical presentation with pathologic fractures could potentially increase the risk [19].

Nigris and colleagues demonstrated that the growth and development of osteosarcoma, as well as the metastasis development, depend on a tightly regulated and balanced angiogenesis [20]. The blocking of tumor angiogenesis could be a promising strategy for osteosarcoma therapy. In addition to that, multiple molecular regulation mechanisms may get involved in the metastasis of osteosarcoma. Studies demonstrated that MDM2 amplification [21], overexpression of VEGFR and PDGFR [22], the activation of mTOR [23], increase of IGF-1R [24], cyclin-dependent kinase [25], Aurora-B [26], TP53 [27] and MYC [28] were associated with the metastasis of osteosarcoma. And some inhibitors or potential inhibitors could suppress the metastasis of osteosarcoma, then extend the survival (S6 Table). In addition, some molecules may also be involved in metachronous lung metastases, such as HER-2 expression [29], circFIRRE [30], CXCL1 [31], and extracellular vesicles miR-101 [32]. As lung metastasis is the most common involved organ at diagnosis, these factors could help for identifying SLM, and are worthwhile candidates for developing potential treatment regimen. Besides, Dong et.al demonstrated that a combination of eight genes, including RAB1, CLEC3B, FCGBP, RNASE3, MDL1, ALOX5AP, VMO1 and ALPK3, was associated with metastasis at diagnosis [33]. However, the molecular information are not provided in the SEER database. Further studies are warranted to include more molecular factors to construct a more powerful predictive model.

Some inflammatory cytokines may also get involved in the tumor progression, recurrence and metastasis of osteosarcoma [34]. A few studies demonstrated that the expression of IL-6, IL-8, and IL-1β could promote the tumor relapse and metastasis [35,36]. And drugs targeting IL-1 may be a potential method to improve the survival of metastatic osteosarcoma [3740].

The most common and valuable method to screen lung metastasis is chest computed tomography (CT) [41]. But because of most of the lung metastasis in osteosarcoma patients are atypical, the sensitivity of CT scan widely ranges in the literature [42]. The improvement of new techniques may better help to identify lung metastasis and perform strictly chest surveillance, for example deep learning-based image reconstruction, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/CT, volume doubling time and computer-aided diagnosis [42].

This study found a dismal CSS in pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with SLM, with a median CSS of only 25 months, which was similar with previous studies [10,14]. The main prognostic factors for dismal survival consisted of age 20–39 years, male, positive lymph nodes, other SSM. Currently, the most common treatment for metastatic osteosarcoma is surgery plus chemotherapy, which could effectively improve the long-term survival of entire osteosarcoma patients [10]. In this study, among pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients, we only found an improvement of survival in surgical patients. But systemic treatment had no impact on survival, mainly because of most of patients (approximately 96.4%) received systemic treatment. Besides, no detail of the specific systemic treatment may also be a potential reason for the negative result. Cardiovascular side event was a common and fatal event, which was demonstrated to be the leading cause of non-cancer death among osteosarcoma patients [43]. For osteosarcoma patients, the most often reason for inducing cardiovascular death was chemotherapy [44]. Other studies suggested that radiation and targeted therapy could also induce cardiovascular toxicity and affect survival [45,46]. More importantly, a few studies reported that the osteosarcoma could directly invade the cardiovascular system and cause damage, with an incidence of approximately 2%, but it increased into 20% when performed autopsy [4749].

Approximately 12.2% of patients received radiotherapy, but this treatment also demonstrated no impact on survival. A concern should be acknowledged, radiotherapy in young patients may cause second primary cancer as a late effect [50,51]. In addition to surgery and chemotherapy, vaccines, adoptive T-cell transfer, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and monoclonal antibodies may also ameliorate the survival outcome [52,53]. But more studies are warranted to better confirm the efficacy of these regimen, especially in combination with surgery.

There are some limitations in this study. First, the nature of retrospective study might lead to data bias. Second, though we select patients from the SEER database, the sample size of this study is still limited because of the rare incidence of osteosarcoma. Besides, we did not perform external validation. Hence, more samples are warranted to identify the predictive power of the nomogram. Third, the information available from SEER database are limited, many associated risk factors mentioned above are not provided. Further studies should include more factors to construct a more powerful model. Last, limited to the follow-up time, the long-term survival for pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with SLM could not be estimated accurately. This should be investigated in the future studies.

Conclusion

Approximately 14.1% of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients had SLM at diagnosis. The incidence of this population increased slightly with statistical significance in last decade, mainly in patients with age 10–19 years, male and appendicular location. The survival of these patients was poor, and age, gender, positive lymph nodes, other SSM were associated prognostic factors. More importantly, we developed a visual, clinically operable, and easy-to-interpret nomogram model for predicting the risk of SLM, which could be used in clinic and help clinicians make better decisions.

Supporting information

S1 Checklist. STROBE statement—Checklist of items that should be included in reports of observational studies.

(DOCX)

S1 Fig. A flow chart of the study design.

(TIF)

S1 Table. Age-standardized incidence rate of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients, United States, 2010 to 2019.

ASIR, age-standardized incidence rate; SEER, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results. Rates are per 1,000,000 person-years.

(DOCX)

S2 Table. Baseline characteristics comparison between train and validation cohorts after propensity score matching.

SSM, site-specific metastasis; SLM, synchronous lung metastasis.

(DOCX)

S3 Table. Risk factors associated with synchronous lung metastasis in pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients.

OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SSM, site-specific metastasis.

(DOCX)

S4 Table. Nomogram point of each variable.

SSM, site-specific metastasis.

(DOCX)

S5 Table. Prognostic factors associated with cancer-specific survival in pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis.

HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; SSM, site-specific metastasis.

(DOCX)

S6 Table. Summary of targeted molecular and related inhibitor associated with osteosarcoma metastasis.

(DOCX)

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all the staff in the National Cancer Institute (USA) for their contribution to the SEER program.

Data Availability

All data are available from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program website (www.seer.cancer.gov). Any registered researcher can download this data for free (https://seer.cancer.gov/data). Others would be able to access or request these data in the same manner as the authors. The authors did not have any special access or request privileges that others would not have.

Funding Statement

The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.

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Decision Letter 0

Filomena de Nigris

19 Jun 2023

PONE-D-23-15475Epidemiology and nomogram of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis: A SEER analysisPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Yang,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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Filomena de Nigris, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Minor revision

1. Since the growth and development of osteosarcoma depend on a tightly regulated and balanced angiogenesis and the blocking of tumor angiogenesis could be a promising strategy for cancer therapy, it is necessary to report in the Introduction some targets, which have already been identified.

An example is represented by cyclin-dependent kinases, fundamental mediators of neoangiogenesis and other (see de Nigris F, et al. Osteosarcoma cells induces endothelial cell proliferation during neo-angiogenesis. J Cell Physiol. 2013 Apr;228(4):846-52).

2. To organize a descriptive table of molecular targets, which are altered in the presence of osteosarcoma metastases.

Reviewer #2: Manuscript titled "Epidemiology and nomogram of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis: A SEER analysis" is a very interesting analysis of SLM risk in patients with osteosarcoma. The overall structure of the manuscript is of good quality, figures are clear and easy to understand. Methods and results are of good quality and support the initial hypothesis. Authors should improve the manuscript in some parts:

1. authors should add information on the pathophysiology of SLM events in these patients and the involvement of serum cytokines like IL-1, IL-6 and CXCL-12 in cancer metastasis as well as in cardiovascular side events.

2. In discussion, authors should add some data on the incidence of tumour-related and chemotherapy-related cardiovascular side events in these patients ( long term toxicity).

Manuscript will be accepted after minor revision.

**********

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Reviewer #2: No

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PLoS One. 2023 Jul 12;18(7):e0288492. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0288492.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


26 Jun 2023

Dear Editor,

Thank you very much for your e-mail on 20 JUN 2023 to informing us to revise our manuscript (PONE-D-23-15475) and respond to the reviewer(s)' comments.

Here, we have carefully studied the reviewers’ comments and made the appropriate revisions to our manuscript.

The following are our specific responses to the editor’s and reviewers’ comments:

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

Author response: Thanks for the editor’s comment. We have amended the style according to the requirements.

2. We note that you have indicated that data from this study are available upon request. PLOS only allows data to be available upon request if there are legal or ethical restrictions on sharing data publicly. For more information on unacceptable data access restrictions, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-unacceptable-data-access-restrictions. In your revised cover letter, please address the following prompts:

a) If there are ethical or legal restrictions on sharing a de-identified data set, please explain them in detail (e.g., data contain potentially sensitive information, data are owned by a third-party organization, etc.) and who has imposed them (e.g., an ethics committee). Please also provide contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee, or other institutional body to which data requests may be sent.

b) If there are no restrictions, please upload the minimal anonymized data set necessary to replicate your study findings as either Supporting Information files or to a stable, public repository and provide us with the relevant URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers. For a list of acceptable repositories, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-recommended-repositories.

We will update your Data Availability statement on your behalf to reflect the information you provide.

Author response: Thanks for the editor’s comment. All the data used in this study were obtained form the public database, SEER database, which is open for all researchers. We have provided sufficient patients selection criteria. Hence, we think there is no need to upload the minimal anonymized data set to replicate our study findings. Because they could replicate this study by access the SEER database for original data, which is more convincing. If needed, we could provide all the datasets used in this study upon reasonable request, by inquiring the corresponding author.

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Author response: Thanks for the editor’s comment. Revised as required.

4. Please include your tables as part of your main manuscript and remove the individual files. Please note that supplementary tables (should remain/ be uploaded) as separate "supporting information" files

Author response: Thanks for the editor’s comment. Revised as required.

5. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information.

Author response: Thanks for the editor’s comment. Revised as required.

6. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Author response: Thanks for the editor’s comment. We have added some references in the discussion section. We have reviewed our reference list and ensure that it is complete and correct.

Reviewer #1: Minor revision

1. Since the growth and development of osteosarcoma depend on a tightly regulated and balanced angiogenesis and the blocking of tumor angiogenesis could be a promising strategy for cancer therapy, it is necessary to report in the Introduction some targets, which have already been identified.

An example is represented by cyclin-dependent kinases, fundamental mediators of neoangiogenesis and other (see de Nigris F, et al. Osteosarcoma cells induces endothelial cell proliferation during neo-angiogenesis. J Cell Physiol. 2013 Apr;228(4):846-52).

Author response: Thanks for the review’s comment. We have added this reference (ref. 20) in the Discussion section, paragraph 4, “Nigris and colleagues demonstrated that the growth and development of osteosarcoma, as well as the metastasis development, depend on a tightly regulated and balanced angiogenesis[20]. The blocking of tumor angiogenesis could be a promising strategy for osteosarcoma therapy.”

2. To organize a descriptive table of molecular targets, which are altered in the presence of osteosarcoma metastases.

Author response: Thanks for the review’s comment. We have added some discussion about the potential molecular targets in the presence of osteosarcoma metastases. And summarize them in eTable 6. See details in paragraph 4 of the Discussion, “In addition to that, multiple molecular regulation mechanisms may get involved in the metastasis of osteosarcoma. Studies demonstrated that MDM2 amplification[21], overexpression of VEGFR and PDGFR[22], the activation of mTOR[23], increase of IGF-1R[24], cyclin-dependent kinase[25], Aurora-B[26], TP53[27] and MYC[28] were associated with the metastasis of osteosarcoma. And some inhibitors or potential inhibitors could suppress the metastasis of osteosarcoma, then extend the survival (eTable 6). In addition, some molecules may also be involved in metachronous lung metastases, such as HER-2 expression[29], circFIRRE[30], CXCL1[31], and extracellular vesicles miR-101[32]. As lung metastasis is the most common involved organ at diagnosis, these factors could help for identifying SLM, and are worthwhile candidates for developing potential treatment regimen.”

Reviewer #2: Manuscript titled "Epidemiology and nomogram of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis: A SEER analysis" is a very interesting analysis of SLM risk in patients with osteosarcoma. The overall structure of the manuscript is of good quality, figures are clear and easy to understand. Methods and results are of good quality and support the initial hypothesis. Authors should improve the manuscript in some parts:

1. authors should add information on the pathophysiology of SLM events in these patients and the involvement of serum cytokines like IL-1, IL-6 and CXCL-12 in cancer metastasis as well as in cardiovascular side events.

Author response: Thanks for the review’s comment. We add some discussion about the involved cytokines in the paragraph 5 of Discussion section, “Some inflammatory cytokines may also get involved in the tumor progression, recurrence and metastasis of osteosarcoma[34]. A few studies demonstrated that the expression of IL-6, IL-8, and IL-1β could promote the tumor relapse and metastasis[35,36]. And drugs targeting IL-1 may be a potential method to improve the survival of metastatic osteosarcoma[37-40].”

2. In discussion, authors should add some data on the incidence of tumour-related and chemotherapy-related cardiovascular side events in these patients ( long term toxicity).

Author response: Thanks for the review’s comment. We add some discussion about the cardiovascular side events in the paragraph 7 of Discussion section, “Cardiovascular side event was a common and fatal event, which was demonstrated to be the leading cause of non-cancer death among osteosarcoma patients[43]. For osteosarcoma patients, the most often reason for inducing cardiovascular death was chemotherapy[44]. Other studies suggested that radiation and targeted therapy could also induce cardiovascular toxicity and affect survival[45,46]. More importantly, a few studies reported that the osteosarcoma could directly invade the cardiovascular system and cause damage, with an incidence of approximately 2%, but it increased into 20% when performed autopsy[47-49]”.

We hope that we have adequately addressed the constructive comments. We greatly appreciate your consideration of this manuscript for possible publication in your journal and look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jin Yang

Attachment

Submitted filename: Author Response Letter.docx

Decision Letter 1

Filomena de Nigris

29 Jun 2023

Epidemiology and nomogram of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis: A SEER analysis

PONE-D-23-15475R1

Dear Dr. Yang

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Filomena de Nigris, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Reviewers' comments:

Acceptance letter

Filomena de Nigris

4 Jul 2023

PONE-D-23-15475R1

Epidemiology and nomogram of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis: A SEER analysis

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Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 Checklist. STROBE statement—Checklist of items that should be included in reports of observational studies.

    (DOCX)

    S1 Fig. A flow chart of the study design.

    (TIF)

    S1 Table. Age-standardized incidence rate of pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients, United States, 2010 to 2019.

    ASIR, age-standardized incidence rate; SEER, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results. Rates are per 1,000,000 person-years.

    (DOCX)

    S2 Table. Baseline characteristics comparison between train and validation cohorts after propensity score matching.

    SSM, site-specific metastasis; SLM, synchronous lung metastasis.

    (DOCX)

    S3 Table. Risk factors associated with synchronous lung metastasis in pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients.

    OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SSM, site-specific metastasis.

    (DOCX)

    S4 Table. Nomogram point of each variable.

    SSM, site-specific metastasis.

    (DOCX)

    S5 Table. Prognostic factors associated with cancer-specific survival in pediatric and young adulthood osteosarcoma patients with synchronous lung metastasis.

    HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; SSM, site-specific metastasis.

    (DOCX)

    S6 Table. Summary of targeted molecular and related inhibitor associated with osteosarcoma metastasis.

    (DOCX)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Author Response Letter.docx

    Data Availability Statement

    All data are available from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program website (www.seer.cancer.gov). Any registered researcher can download this data for free (https://seer.cancer.gov/data). Others would be able to access or request these data in the same manner as the authors. The authors did not have any special access or request privileges that others would not have.


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