Benefit of surgery after chemoradiotherapy in stage IIIB (T4 and/or N3) non-small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate postchemoradiotherapy surgery in stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: Forty patients with stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer were included in this phase II study. A preoperative diagnosis of stage IIIB cancer was based on mediastinoscopy or a thoracotomy in all patients. Induction treatment included two cycles of cisplatin (100 mg/m(2), day 1), 5-fluorouracil (1 g/m(2), days 1-3), and vinblastine (4 mg/m(2), day 1) combined with 42 Gy of hyperfractionated radiotherapy delivering 21 Gy in two sessions. Patients with a clinical response were offered surgery. RESULTS: The minimum follow-up for survivors was 48 months. Thirty patients had a T4 lesion and 18 had N3 disease. Twenty-nine patients (73%) had a clinical objective tumor response after induction treatment. These 29 patients underwent thoracotomy, and a complete resection was performed in 23 (58%). Two postoperative deaths occurred (7%). Four patients had a pathologic complete response at the time of surgery (10%). The 5-year survival is 19% for the overall population. When only patients who had persistent viable tumor cells at surgery are considered (n = 25), the 5-year survival is 28%. The 5-year survival is 42% for patients having no mediastinal lymph node involvement at the time of surgery and being treated with complete resection. CONCLUSION: This study shows that surgery, when feasible, is associated with a 28% long-term survival for patients in whom chemoradiotherapy alone fails to control disease.

Surgery for advanced stage lung cancer.

Therapeutic strategy in advanced stage disease remains controversial. Theoretically resectable, Stage IIIa disease includes a high proportion of non-resectable nodal diseases. Overall 5-year survival after surgery remains lower than 15%. Randomized trials comparing the results of surgery alone with induction chemotherapy followed by surgery showed a significant benefit to induction therapy. Currently, Stage IIIb diseases are considered unresectable; nevertheless, selected patients are able to undergo an extended resection after induction treatments. In highly selected cases, a surgical resection can be performed in T4 tumors. Surgical resection must be included in a combined multidisciplinary strategy of treatment, and is proposed only for responders. Resectability criteria have to be defined with clinical trials designed to increase the local control by surgery. Thus, so-called Stage IIIb tumors can be divided in two subcategories: potentially resectable and definitively non-resectable. Some locally advanced, initially unresectable tumors (Stage IIIb) can become operable after induction chemoradiotherapy. The French staging system, based upon prognostic and therapeutic subcategories, splits N2 involvement into two subcategories: mN2 (minimal), found at the thoracotomy; and cN2 (clinical), histologically proven at the pre-treatment staging. T4 tumors are divided in potentially resectable T4(1) (invasion of superior vena cava, carina, lower trachea, left atrium), and definitively non-resectable T4(2) (malignant pleural or pericardial effusion, invasion of oesophagus, and vertebrae). Thus, Stage III can be separated into three subcategories, A, B, and C, instead of the two current substages. Stage IIIA includes T3 N1 M0 and T1-T3mN2M0 tumors. Stage IIIB includes T1-T3cN2M0 and T4(1)N0-N2MO tumors. Stage IIIC includes T4(2)N0-N3M0 and T1-T4(1)N3M0 tumors. In this way, the therapeutic options in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) will be clarified with 1) a "primary surgery" subgroup, including Stages I, II, and IIIA, 2) an "induction treatment" subgroup, including Stage IIIB, and 3) a "non-surgical" subgroup, including Stages IIIC and IV.

Pneumonectomy for lung metastases: indications, risks, and outcome.

BACKGROUND: Resection of pulmonary metastases (PM) by pneumonectomy is infrequently performed and benefits are uncertain. METHODS: From 1985 to 1995, 42 patients underwent pneumonectomy for PM. Twenty-nine patients had PM from sarcomas, 12 patients from carcinomas, and 1 patient from melanoma. The indications for pneumonectomy were pulmonary recurrences in 12 patients, PM centrally located in 26 patients, and high number of PM in 4 patients. There were 11 intrapericardial and 6 extended pneumonectomies. The average number of PM resected was 3. Twenty-two patients (52%) had lymph nodes involvement. RESULTS: There were 2 postoperative deaths (4.8%) related to pneumonectomy and one death within 30 days for rapidly evolving disease; 4 patients (9.5%) had major postoperative complications that were medically treated. Five patients (12%) were operated on for recurrences on the residual lung. At the completion of the study, 12 patients were still alive, 8 without recurrences. The median survival was 6.5 months (range, 1 to 144 months); the 5-year survival was 16.8%. CONCLUSIONS: Pneumonectomy should not be considered an absolute contraindication in patients with PM, but the poor outcome of our series suggests strict criteria of selection.