Clinical outcomes and prognostic factors for surgically resected second primary lung cancer

This study was designed to analyze the predictive factors for survival in second primary lung cancer patients following operation.

A total of 1852 patients who underwent resection for primary lung cancer between January 1990 and December 2008 were reviewed, retrospectively.

Nineteen patients were treated for synchronous second primary lung cancer and 23 patients were treated for metachronous cancer. The overall 5-year survival rate for patients with synchronous second primary lung cancer was comparable to that of patients with single-lung cancer (51.4 vs. 48.7%, p = 0.755). The overall 5-year survival rate after the first tumor resection in patients with metachronous second primary lung cancer was significantly better than that of patients with single-lung cancer (85.4 vs. 48.7%, p = 0.003), but was not significantly different after the second tumor resection (77.0 vs. 48.7%, p = 0.057).

Surgically resected second primary lung cancer had a survival comparable with single-lung cancer. Histologic concordance between the first and second tumors, and the pathological stage were important prognostic factors in second primary lung cancer.