[Surgical treatment for small cell lung cancer]

Surgical treatment for small cell lung cancer had been largely discontinued until the early 1980s, when a retrospective analysis found a high cure rate in some patients. The Japan Clinical Oncology Group (JCOG) also performed a retrospective analysis of 114 patients with small cell lung cancer who underwent surgical resection from 1981 to 1985. The 5-year survival rate was 47% for those in clinical stage I and 20s% for those in stage II and stage IIIA. Whether chemotherapy should be given before or after surgery is unclear. Howevers, In a recent prospective study patients who underwent local radiotherapy soon after the start of chemotherapy survived longer than did those who underwent local radiotherapy after chemotherapy. A phase II trial of postoperative chemotherapy is now being done by the JCOG. The interim results are promising: the 3-year survival rate is 80% in patients whose disease is classified as pathological stage I.