[Postoperative chemotherapy of pathological stage I non-small cell carcinoma of the lung]

Between August 1982 and February 1985, 13 patients with pathological stage I non-small cell lung cancer received postoperative chemotherapy with ACNU, ADM and 5-FU. Nine patients had squamous cell carcinoma, two adenocarcinoma, and two large cell carcinoma. All patients were alive in August, 1985, but four of them had recurrent disease. The site of recurrence was the brain in three and the contralateral lung in one. Of these four patients, three had t2n0(-) p0 squamous cell carcinoma and one t1n0(-) p1 large cell carcinoma. In a control group consisting of six squamous cell carcinoma and six adenocarcinoma, recurrence occurred in one patient with t1n0(-) p0 squamous cell carcinoma. Although the treated group had unfavorable conditions of cell type and tumor size, there was no evidence that this combination chemotherapy could control recurrence of the tumor under these conditions.