[Relatively non-curative resection for lung cancer: is this a complete resection?]

A superior outcome is observed for cases of curative resection compared with that of non-curative resection. The Japan Lung Cancer Society revised "General Rule for Clinical and Pathological Record of Lung Cancer" in 1999 and relatively non-curative resection (RNCR) of former rule was categorized as complete resection. The reason and the countermeasure of RNCR for lung cancer were analyzed. During 11 years, 242 patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer were surgically treated in Showa University Hospital. One hundred patients underwent absolutely curative resection (ACR); 64, relatively curative resection (RCR); 55, RNCR; 23, absolutely non-curative resection (ANCR). Three-year survival was 90% for patients with ACR, 48% with RCR, 21% with RNCR, and 13% with ANCR. The cases for RNCR were defined as follows: RNCR-a) incomplete mediastinal lymph node dissection (n = 29), RNCR-b) partial resection of the lung without lymph nodes dissection (n = 5), RNCR-c) N 2 b metastasis (n = 14), RNCR-d) N 3 lymph node dissection with N 3 metastasis (n = 0), RNCR-e) metastasis in other lobes of the ipsilateral thoracic cage (n = 7). RNCR-a) was selected in the poor risk patients who were diagnosed as clinical N 0 or N 1. Only one out of the 29 patients was diagnosed as pathological N 2 after surgery with hilar and mediastinal lymph node sampling. Because of the excellent preoperative staging, only RNCR-a) had three year survivors among RNCR cases and the three year survival rate was 39%. RNCR-b) was selected in the severe risk patients who were diagnosed as clinical N 0. There was no death associated with complication in RNCR-b) group. Some cases of RNCR-c) (pathological N 2 b) were clinical N 0 or N 1 and there was a limitation of the preoperative clinical staging. However, some cases of the clinical N 2 were surgically treated with chemo-radiotherapy and were resulted as RNCR-c). The concepts between curative resectability and complete resectability are different and RNCR-b), c), and e) should not include the curative resection because of the poor prognosis.