Primary lung cancer surgery in stage II and stage III
W. B. Neptune
New England Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
We reviewed 100 operations performed on 95 consecutive patients with stage
II (n = 7) and stage III (n = 88) primary lung cancer. The five-year
survival of patients with N1 involvement was 58% and with N2 disease was
21%. Of 13 patients with Pancoast or chest wall involvement, 58% survived
five years. The entire group had a 34% five-year survival and a median
survival of 32 months. Preoperative and/or postoperative radiotherapy, in
the presence of nodal disease, appears to improve local control, but an
effective chemotherapy program is needed for unrecognized visceral
metastases. In the absence of contraindications, surgical excision offers
the best likelihood of survival and quality of life.
