[Results of the surgical treatment of patients with advanced small lung cancer].

From 1970 to 1988, 603 patients with non-small cell lung cancer were operated in our department. Among them, patients with small lung cancer (diameter less than 3 cm) with advanced disease were analyzed. There were 19 patients with mediastinal node metastasis, 2 with contralateral or supra-clavicular node metastasis, 3 with distant organ metastasis and one with pleural dissemination. In T1N2 group, adenocarcinoma was predominant in 17 patients and only 2 with squamous cell carcinoma. Sixteen patients underwent curative lobectomy with mediastinal node dissection. In T1N3 group, lobectomy and mediastinal and cervical node dissection were carried out. In T 1M1 group, 3 patients had lobectomy and removal of metastatic lesions, separately or simultaneously. One patient with pleural dissemination had segmentectomy and extirpation of disseminated foci. There were no operative deaths or hospital deaths in this series. Survival of the patients with T1N2 with curative resection was 93.8% in one year, 38.2% in 3 years and 22.9% in 5 years after operation. Among them, patients with intraoperative diagnosis of negative mediastinal node had relatively well survival. However, patients with N3, D+, or M1 had poor prognosis.