Abstract
We investigated patients undergoing resection for primary lung cancer. They included 29 patients in whom histological examination was made with an intraoperative frozen section and the stump was judged negative histologically postoperatively, and 4 patients in whom a frozen section was not needed during operation and the stump was judged positive histologically postoperatively, in total 33 patients. Tracheoplasty or bronchoplasty was performed in 8 of the 33 patients. Those in whom the stump was judged negative based on a intraoperative frozen section, but relapse of stump was observed after operation numbered 5 and 4 of 5 died of cancer. Radiotherapy was not performed in any of them. On the other hand, relapse of stump was not observed in any of patients in whom the stump was positive and who received radiotherapy postoperatively, and some survived for a long time. In patients in whom relapse of stump occurred after operation and in those in whom the stump was found positive postoperatively, the visual distance from the tumor to the stump was within 15mm and the tissues were affected by squamous cell carcinoma in all of them. The above findings suggested that postoperative radiotherapy should be considered even though the bronchial stump was negative when an intraoperative rapid specimen was used.
