Five-year survival in operated lung cancer

A total of 1,001 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of lung cancer were treated at the University Hospital Pellenberg - Leuven in the five-year period 1970-1974. One hundred and sixty-four patients (16.4%) were operated and 152 underwent surgical resection of their pulmonary lung lesion. The influence of factors as histology, type of resection, age, staging, anatomic localization of the tumor on the five year survival are considered. The survival was 34.2% for all types of resected tumors, ranging from 42.0% for the lobectomies in squamous cell carcinoma to 0% in small cell carcinoma. The operative (30 days) mortality is included in the statistical follow-up. This mortality was 8.6% for the pneumonectomies and 4.3% for the lobectomies.