[Surgical treatment for tumors in the superior sulcus]

Surgical challenge for tumors arising posterior-apical lung well known as Pancoast tumor and those of the apical lung involving anterior thoracic outlet structures (mainly subclavian vessels) have been continued with seeking the pathway of the proper approaches and the strategy combined modalities as radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery for these 50 years, and operative outcome have been improved these decades. As complete resection of the tumors is the main factor for operative results, the preoperative evaluation on involved structures and the choice among the different approaches is important. We present our experience for Pancoast tumors with posterior approaches and for cervico-thoracic tumors resected with anterior approaches.