Evaluation of Surgical Treatment of Patients over 75 years of Age with Lung Cancer

Abstract

Sixty patients with lung cancer over the age of 75 years were admitted from 1973 to February, 1988, and 33 of them were treated surgically.The operative procedures were lobectomy (22 patients), segmentectomy (five patients), pneumonectomy (one patient), sleeve pneumonectomy (one patient) and partial resection (two patients). Absolute curative resection was done in 13 patients (39. 4%), relative curative resection in two (6. 1%), relative non-curative resection in nine (27. 3%), absolute non-curative resection in seven (21. 2%) and exploratory thoracotomy in two (6. 1%).The three-year survival rate after operation for all 33 patients was 37. 7% (66. 7% for stage I-16 patients and 19. 2% for stage III-14 patients).Seventeen patients are alive; ten had absolute curative resection (58. 8%), one had relative curative resection (5. 9%), four had relative non-curative resection (23. 5%) and two had absolute non-curative resection (11. 8%).Postoperative complication developed in 18 patients (54. 5%). The incidence was 84. 6% in the absolute curative group, 50. 0% in the relative curative group, 33. 3% in the relative non-curative group and 28. 6% in the absolute non-curative group. Patients who had absolute curative resection with mediastinal lymph node dissection had a high incidence of postoperative complications. There was no operative mortality in any of the groups.It is concluded that aggressive surgical treatment should be performed regardless of the age of the patient if radical operation is at all feasible.