Current surgical approach to non-small-cell lung cancer

Surgery is the best treatment for stage I lung cancer. While most physicians concur, they disagree as to the volume of lung needing to be resected to achieve the best survival results. The author and her colleagues at Memorial Sloan-Kettering feel that a lobectomy should be performed in all cases unless the pulmonary function precludes excision of this volume of lung tissue. In resections of less than a lobectomy for a primary tumor, the recurrence rate is high and usually precludes a salvage lobectomy. The author discusses surgical treatment of other stages of lung cancer as well.