• Journal of Chest Surgery
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.173-178
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• 2000

Background: Though the surgical treatment of stage IIIB lung cancer is not generalized due to low complete remission rate high morbidity and mortality there are several reports on the improvement of long term survival after preoperative and postoperative adjuvant therapy. In this study we analyzed the prognostic factors affecting long term survival after surgical treatment of stage IIIB lung cancer Material and method: We analyzed the long term survival for age pathology invaded mediastinal organ n stage type of operation complete or incomplete resection and adjuvant therapy through a retrospective review of patients underwent surgical treatment. Result: From 1990 to 1998 56 patients(51/male 5/female0 with stage IIIB lung cancer were trated surgically. Forty two patients underwent radical resection and morbidity and mortality were 17% 12% respectively. The survival rate for overall patients and the radical resection group were 9% 12% respectively. In the radical resection group excluding explothoracotomy only(n=14) and the surgical mortality patients(n=5) the age the type of operation celly type resectability and N stage had no influence on the long term survival. The survival rate of radical resection group was significantly better than that of the explothoracotomy only group(p=0.04) The long term survival rate of postoperative combination therapy group was significantly better than chemotherapy or radiotherapy alone(p=0.04) Conclsion: Age type after surgical treatment of stage IIIB lung cancer. We conclude that combined modality of adjuvant treatment after radical resection of stage IIIB lung cancer seems to offer better long term survival in selective patients. The numbers of patients involved was small. Nevertheless these preliminary findings indicate questions that will need to be experienced further in larger studies.