[Feasibility of limited surgery for small peripheral lung cancer]

We investigated the pathologic factors of small (< or = 20 mm in diameter) peripheral non-small-cell lung cancer lesions and postoperative course of the patients with these lesions to evaluate feasibility of limited surgery for small peripheral lung cancer. From 1982 to 1997, 114 patients underwent resection for small (< or = 20 mm in diameter) peripheral non-small-cell lung cancer. The histologic type was adenocarcinoma in 92 and squamous cell carcinoma in 22. Lobectomy was performed in 111, pneumonectomy in two and segmentectomy in one patient. The systematic mediastinal dissection was carried out in all patients. In 33 patients with tumors 12 mm in diameter or smaller, there were no one with lymph-node metastasis or pulmonary metastasis. Likewise, all patients were survived without relapse. In conclusion, curative resection may be possible without mediastinal dissection or with lesser lung resection (segmentectomy or partial resection), when the tumor diameter is less than 10 mm, for small peripheral non-small-cell lung cancer.