Assessment of the role of surgery for stage III bronchogenic carcinoma

In order to assess the role of surgery for stage III bronchogenic carcinoma, we reviewed our results of 282 patients who were treated with surgical resection or various other therapy modalities. The survival in patients who underwent surgical resection was significantly better than those with nonresectable carcinoma. However, superior survival results were demonstrated only in patients with complete resection. In contrast, the survival in patients with palliative resection was similar to that in patients with exploratory thoracotomy and inoperable carcinoma. On the other hand, all patients with T3N2 lesions died of their disease within two years after surgery even when undergoing complete resection. Thus, we conclude that radical resection should be indicated in patients with T3N0-1 and T1-2N2 lesions if complete resection is expected.