Surgical outcomes of lung cancer measuring less than 1 cm in diameter.
OBJECTIVE
The increased use of computed tomography has led to an increasing proportion of lung cancers that are identified when still less than 1 cm in diameter. However, there is no defined treatment strategy for such cases. The aim of this study was to investigate the surgical outcomes of small lung cancers.


METHODS
A total of 143 patients were retrospectively evaluated, who had undergone a complete surgical resection for lung cancer less than 1 cm in diameter between January 1995 and December 2011.


RESULTS
The 143 study subjects included 62 male and 81 female patients. The mean age was 64.0 years (43-82 years). The mean tumour size was 0.8 cm (0.3-1.0 cm). Seventy-seven patients (53.8%) underwent lobectomy. Thirty-two patients (22.4%) underwent segmentectomy and 34 patients (23.8%) underwent wedge resection. The 3-, 5- and 10-year survival rates were 95.7, 92.2 and 85.7%, respectively, after resection for sub-centimetre lung cancer. There were no significant differences between sub-lobar resection and lobectomy. However, two patients (1.4%) had recurrent cancer and seven (4.9%) had lymph node metastasis.


CONCLUSIONS
The selection of the surgical procedure is important and a long-term follow-up is mandatory, because lung cancer of only 1 cm or less can be associated with lymph node metastasis and distant metastatic recurrence.
Department of General Thoracic, Breast and Paediatric Surgery,  Fukuoka University School of Medicine, Fukuoka,  Japan.
Daisuke
D
Hamatake
Yasuhiro
Y
Yoshida
So
S
Miyahara
Shin-ichi
S
Yamashita
Takeshi
T
Shiraishi
Akinori
A
Iwasaki
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011013:Pneumonectomy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D047368:Tumor Burden