[Surgery for bronchogenic carcinoma in patients over seventy years old (author's transl)]

125 patients aged over 70 years underwent operation for bronchogenic carcinoma at the Centre Chirurgical Marie Lannelongue for a period extending from 1963 to 1976. There were 123 male and 2 female patients. 112 had a squamous cell carcinoma. A total of 32 patients had a pneumonectomy performed, 86 a partial resection (lobectomy or bilobectomy) and 7 an exploratory thoracotomy. Post operative death was definitely higher (15,6%) in the pneumonectomy group than in the lobectomy one (2,6%). The main cause of post-operative death (62%) was pulmonary embolism. Post-operative complications were mainly related to cardiac arrhythmias. Overall survival rate after 5 years was 25,2%, slightly higher in the lobectomy group (25,9%) than in the pneumonectomy group (22,2%), higher in the differentiated squamous cell carcinoma group (31,1%) than in the undifferentiated (6,3%). The quality of life was reasonably satisfactory in most of the patients considering their age. Surgery for bronchogenic carcinoma in patients over 70 years old is recommended specially with limited resection is possible.