[Surgery of bronchogenic cancer in aged patients]

The lung cancer mortality rate increases with age, but the progressivity and radioclinical features of this cancer in the elderly are not very different from those observed in younger subjects. As in these subjects, the pretherapeutic evaluation must be complete whenever surgery seems to be possible, but special attention must be paid to the cardiovascular system. Several recent studies have reported postoperative mortality and morbidity rates paradoxically similar, or even lower, in both old and relatively young patients, probably because of a better selection. Moreover, the survival rate at 5 years of the elderly compares favourably with that of younger subjects. Thus, age is not an absolute contra-indication to surgery, but it requires a more rigorous selection and a closer postoperative supervision.