[Growth rate as one of the characteristics of peripheral lung cancer]

A correlation between the rate of growth of peripheral cancer of the lung and patient's age was established by a study involving 262 cases. The duration of tumor presence in the body appeared to be a factor influencing the process of tumor dissemination to regional lymph nodes. An analysis of the long-term results of surgical treatment of 127 patients yielded a significant correlation between the time of doubling of tumor size and survival within the first two years after operation. At later stages, survival rates tended to rise in patients with slowly-growing tumors, with the exception of those with the tumor doubling time under 20 days and a bad prognosis.