Abstract
In therapy of lung cancer it is important to be decided what type of therapeutic strategy is most appropriate and what kind of results can be anticipated. Selection of type of therapy in primary lung cancer depends on the following factors: Histological type, Location and Stage.
The differences of methodology, which is necessary in deciding therapeutic strategy, employed to diagnose and evaluate cases which are X-ray-negative and sputum cytology-positive (roentgenologically occult lung cancer) and cases which reveal abnormal findings on chest X-ray are described. Especially in occult lung cancer cases, with the remarkable improvements that have been made in the fiberoptic bronchoscope, bronchoscopy has become relatively simple to perform and is extremely effective for detailed examination as far as 4th order bronchi for tumor localization.
Surgery treatment is the treatment of choise for lung cancer. Until 1960s, pneumonectomy was a common surgical method for lung cancer, but after that period lobectomy and systemic mediastinal lymph node dissection bacame standard. As for the survical rate according to pathological stage, out of a total of 1, 211 resected cases, among stage I and II cases in which the surgical procedure was thought to be curative, the 5-year survival rate were 67.4% and 41.1%, respectively. The 5-year survival rates of stage IIIA and IIIB, on the other hand, were only 14.7% and 0% respectively. In order to improve the survival rate of lung cancer, more efforts must be made for early detection of early stage lung cancer cases, and the development of more effective adjuvant therapy is anticipated.
