[Preliminary results of a cooperative study of the efficacy of combined treatment of lung cancer].

The clinical data provided by the members of a CMEA joint study on the problem of Lung Cancer (Work group 3--9.1.1) are analysed. The study undertaken by the researchers of Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, USSR and Czechoslovakia was concerned with evaluation of the effectiveness of a modality of combined treatment of well--differentiated cancer of the lung. The study group consisted of 286 patients; 231 surgically treated patients were in control. It was found that preoperative intensive concentrated radiation treatment did not interfere with surgical procedures. Nor did it specifically involve any intraoperative complications or change their frequency. However, combined treatment (preoperative irradiation + surgery) was followed by a relatively high mortality and a significant increase in the frequency of postoperative complications, especially purulent ones, such as bronchial fistula and empyema of the pleural cavity. Maximal difference in mortality rates between the groups was observed in cases of stage III cancer. The long-term results were studied in 379 cases (221 patients after combined treatment and 158--after surgery). 76.5 and 77.2, 49.4, and 41.2, and 34.4 and 20.7% of patients survived over one, three and five years, respectively. Better results registered in the study group were largely due to cases of stage III squamous cell carcinoma.