The clinical course and treatment results of patients with postresection locally recurrent lung cancer.

Of 1018 patients with lung cancer seen in the division of radiation therapy between 1963 and 1976, forty-six patients (4.5%) presented with postresection local recurrence and no documented distant metastasis. The median time to recurrence was thirteen months. Most patients had central recurrence with hilar or mediastinal lymph node metastasis, parenchymal consolidation, main stem nodule or bronchial stump tumor. There was a propensity for these tumors to remain limited to the site of origin. Death was most often from local/regional disease rather than distant metastasis. In this clinical setting the effectiveness of radiotherapy was observed in terms of palliation and improved survival. Strong determinants to survival were cell type, tumor dose and tumor response. The median survival was eleven months.