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The Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2000 June;41(3):483-6

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Long-term results after pulmonary resection in elderly patients with non-small cell lung cancer

Kamiyoshihara M., Kawashima O., Ishikawa S., Morishita Y.

From the Department of Surgery, National Sanatorium Nishi-Gunma Hospital, Shibukawa, Gunma, Japan *Second Department of Surgery, Gunma University School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan

Back­ground. The ­number of ­elder by ­patients with ­lung ­cancer is ­expected to ­increase. But, ­there was no ­report ­that 10 ­years com­pletely ­passed in sur­gi­cally ­treated eld­erly ­patients (E-pts). ­This ­study ­assesses ­late ­results of sur­gery.
­Methods. ­From 1981 to 1987, 160 ­patients ­with non-­small ­cell ­lung ­cancer under­went lobec­tomy or pneu­mo­nec­tomy ­with med­i­as­tinal ­lymph ­node dis­sec­tion. Of ­these, 37 (23%) ­were 70 ­years of age or ­older. The out­come of ­this ­group was com­pared ­with ­that of 123 non-eld­erly ­patients (NE-pts).
­Results. ­There ­were no sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences in the back­ground ­between E-pts and NE-pts. ­Five- and 10-­year sur­vi­vals in the E-pts ­were 35.1%, and 24.3%, respec­tively. In out­come ­more ­than 5 ­years ­from oper­a­tion, E-pts had a sig­nif­i­cantly ­poorer prog­nosis ­than NE-pts (p=0.04) by any ­causes of ­death, but a sim­ilar prog­nosis by pri­mary ­death. E-pts ­died of non­tumor-­related ­death sig­nif­i­cantly ­more ­than NE-pts (p=0.6).
Con­clu­sions. ­This ­study ­showed ­that E-pts ­could con­sum­mate ­their ­lives com­pletely. Addi­tion­ally, ­when ­long-­term prog­nosis of the post­op­er­a­tive E-pts was dis­cussed, we ­should con­tem­plate ­that E-pts had ­more ­deaths ­from non­tumor-­related ­causes.