Diagnosis and treatment of clinical stage I lung cancers

Abstract

Between 1985 and 1993, 109 clinical stage I lung cancers were resected in our hospital. The accuracy of preoperative staging was 59.6%. The most common inconsistent factor between clinical and pathological stage was the N factor, and pm was the second. Adenocarcinomas, larger than 3 cm in diameter showed significantly high positive rates of pN and pm factors (p<0.05). The prognosis for patients with adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas larger than 3 cm in diameter was significantly poor (p<0.01). These data suggest that in T2 lung cancers, more precise diagnosis and adequate therapy are necessary. On the other hand, pN2 cases were few in peripheral T1NO lung cancers, so minimally invasive procedure is available in these cases.