Surgical aspects in the treatment of lung cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The treatment of lung cancer has been most successful when surgery is involved. This review is a succinct overview of lung cancer treatment from the thoracic surgeon's perspective over the past 2 years.


RESULTS
Starting with the evidence-based guidelines developed by the American College of Chest Physicians, the main themes in the literature are a multimodality approach and the miniaturization of surgical approaches. Palliative procedures, staging, and extension of surgery to patients previously thought inoperable are other subjects covered.


CONCLUSIONS
We are standing on the verge of having a definitive answer to the 20-year-old question whether adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy benefits patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Sufficient data will be available shortly to determine whether minimally invasive surgical approaches yield similar long-term outcomes as traditional approaches.
Bilfinger
Thomas V
TV
Department of Surgery, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA. tbilfinger@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D016896:Treatment Outcome