[What can thoracic surgery accomplish in recurrent/second carcinoma of non-small-cell bronchial carcinoma?]

From 1990 to 2000, 2268 (29.9%) of 9600 lung cancer patients underwent resection for stage I to IIIA non-small cell lung cancer. Reinterventions were done in one hundred (3.5%) patients, for locoregional recurrence in 27, metachronous cancer in 42, metastasis or a third tumor in 31. A third intervention was performed in 23 patients and a fourth in two. The in-hospital mortality rate was 9%. The overall survival was 31.9% at five and 17.9% at ten years. The 5-year survival after the first intervention (reintervention) was 26% (11%) for local recurrence, 80.3% (27%) for metachronous cancer, 7% (0%) for recurrence of synchronous cancers and 0% (0%) for lung metastasis after a solitary primary lung cancer.