Incidence and benefits of surgical therapy for third primary lung cancers.

Abstract

e18512 Background: Continued surveillance of lung cancer patients after curative surgery allows for the diagnosis of new disease. However, there is a relative paucity of data in regards to the development of third primary lung cancers. The goals of this study were to examine the incidence of third primary cancers and the results of surgical therapy. Methods: Surgically resected Stage 1 second primary lung cancers with complete data were identified in The Survival Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database between 2004 and 2010. Among these 238 cases, those which developed a third primary lung cancer 6 or more months after the diagnosis of the second primary were analyzed. Statistical methods were performed using Kaplan-Meier and multivariate analysis. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically considered significant. Results: Twenty-four patients (10.1%) experienced a third primary lung cancer; sixteen cases (66.7%) were diagnosed in stage I. Twelve patients (50% of cases) underwent cancer surgery. N...