title: Operating on a suspicious lung mass without a preoperative tissue diagnosis: pros and cons.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with a suspicious lung mass sometimes receive surgery with no preoperative tissue diagnosis despite-and sometimes in lieu of-modern medical investigations. The pros and cons of doing so have rarely been studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pulmonary surgery was performed in 443 consecutive adult patients with a lung mass confirmed or suspected to be an early stage primary lung cancer. No diagnosis was confirmed preoperatively in 206 (46.5%) patients. Whether to take a core biopsy or wedge excision biopsy for frozen section assessment intraoperatively was decided at the surgeon's discretion.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients without preoperative diagnosis were on average younger than those with a diagnosis (61 vs 66 years, P < 0.01), but were otherwise similar to those who had a preoperative diagnosis confirmed. In all patients operated on without a preoperative diagnosis, there was no mortality or major complication, and the perioperative minor morbidity rate was 9.7%. Among patients ultimately found to have lung cancer and who received a lobectomy, performing a frozen section intraoperatively did not increase mean operation time or morbidity. Among those patients with no preoperative tissue diagnosis, 97 (47.1%) proceeded to surgery without attempts at preoperative diagnosis, and 109 (52.9%), after attempts at preoperative diagnosis failed to yield a positive diagnosis. After surgery, benign disease was found in 16 (7.8%) patients without preoperative diagnosis. A significantly lower proportion of patients without preoperative diagnosis waited an interval of over 28 days between presentation and being accepted for thoracic surgery (42.2 vs 54.9%, P < 0.01). However, they were not more likely to have Stage I disease and did not have better recurrence-free survival rates on survival analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Proceeding to surgery without preoperative diagnosis in selected patients with a suspicious lung mass is safe and can potentially reduce the interval between presentation and surgical management. However, the shortened workup time is not associated with improved surgical or oncological outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Li Ka Sing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China.
authors.forename: Alan D L
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Sihoe
authors.forename: Raj
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hiranandani
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Enoch S L
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Yeung
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures; D011013:Pneumonectomy; D057234:Preoperative Period; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Lung cancer; Lung cancer diagnosis; Lung cancer surgery; Minimally invasive surgery; Solitary pulmonary nodule