[Adjuvant chemotherapy for lung cancer]

After analysing 1929 cases of resection for lung cancer under the classification of adjuvant therapy, histology, stage and chronology, we learned positive points of adjuvant chemotherapy and its problems. The five year survival rate of 45 cases of small cell carcinoma is 23.9% (oat cell 18.5%, intermediate 28.6%). Long-term survivors are always found among the stage I patients, however, better results (14.7%-60.6%) have been shown since 1980. This fact must be derived from recent achievements of chemotherapy. Seven cases of adjuvant surgery for small cell carcinoma shows needs of chemotherapy. The randomized controlled study by using vindesine for non-small cell carcinoma, stage III, and also other studies showed no signs of effectiveness of chemotherapy on non-small cell carcinoma. Clinical application of clonogenic cell assay has made an advance in selecting types of chemotherapy. The problems are, however, administration of drugs, i.e. selection of drugs, time and period to administrated, accurate diagnoses and precise judgement of clinical stage and drug tolerance of patients. We expect more effective drugs to come in the near future.