Abstract
From 1976 to 1991, 173 patients with stage IIIA non-small cell lung cancer underwent pulmonary resection. Of these, absolutely curative resection was performed on 3 patients, relatively curative resection on 103, relatively non-curative resection on 41 and absolutely non-curative resection on 26 patients. The 5-year survival rates were 36.1% for the 103 relatively curative resection patients, 23.3% for the 41 relatively non-curative resection patients, and 0% for the 26 absolutely non-curative resection patients. The patients undergoing relatively curative resection showed significantly longer survival than the patients undergoing relatively non-curative or absolutely non-curative resection. For each level of operative curativity, the outcome was evaluated in relation to whether post-operative chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were employed, but no significant differences were found. The relatively curative and relatively non-curative resection patients were separated into pT1-2N2, pT3N0-1 and pT3N2 subgroups. The outcome was not affected by the use or non-use of postoperative adjuvant therapy in all subgroups. However, there were many cases with distant metastasis in the pT1-2N2 subgroup and many cases with local recurrence in the pT3N0-1 subgroup. It is surmized that postoperative genaral therapy is effective for pN2 cases, while local therapy is useful for pT3 cases.
