[Lung resection for patients with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease]

The number of lung resection for patients with lung cancer has been increasing lineally for last two decades in Japan. It reached more than 30,000 in 2009. Subsequently those combined with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) also have increased. As pulmonary vascular bed has already been lost to some extent due to chronic alveolar destruction, a careful preoperative physiologic assessment according to a guideline by American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) or European Respiratory Society( ERS)/European Society of Thoracic Surgeons( ESTS) is important to select patients to be underwent lung resection within acceptable risk. The process to evaluate the risk of lung resection for a lung cancer patient has three steps structured by forced expiratory volume in 1 sec( FEV1), diffusion capacitiy for carbon monoxide (DLco), and exercise capacity. We suggested that it would be more practical to add global initiative for obstructive lung disease( GOLD) staging of each patient and distribution of emphysematous lung obtained by functional imaging modarities to the pathway of flow chart of the guideline. Some patients with very low FEV1 demonstrate increase in FEV1 after lung resection by so called lung volume reduction effect. To utilize lots of findings and experiences obtained from lung volume reduction surgery( LVRS) contributes to select patients with lung cancer and COPD and to perform lung resection and perioperative care properly.