PROGNOSIS FOR PATIENTS WITH PNEUMONECTOMY OR LESSER RESECTIONS FOR NONSMALL CELL LUNG-CANCER BASED ON HISTOLOGIC CELL-TYPE

Contrary results have been reported regarding prognosis by histologic cell type in surgical treatment for lung cancer. To evaluate whether h istologic cell type has influence on prognosis, we separately analyzed the prognostic outcome of patients who had undergone pneumonectomy (n =119) and lesser resections (n=124) for non-small cell lung cancer (NS CLC) between January, 1985 and March, 1996. The pneumonectomy group in cluded 87 (73%) squamous cell carcinoma (Sq), 25 (21%) adenocarcinoma (Ad) and 7 other types with 10 (8%) patients in postoperative stage I of the disease, 29 (24%) stage II, 74 (62%) stage III and 6 in stage I V. The lesser resection group included 45 (36%) Sq, 63 (51%) Ad and 16 other types with 71 (57%) patients in stage I, 9 (7%) stage II, 32 (2 6%) stage III and 12 stage IV. In patients with stages I-III, the 5-ye ar survival rate was 42.8% for the Sq group and 41.1% for the Ad group in the case of lesser resections and 37.1% for the Sq group and 0% fo r the Ad group (p<0.05) in the case of pneumonectomy. The poorer progn osis for patients with Ad in the case of pneumonectomy was suspected t o be due to the N factor; the percentage of patients with N0-1 was sig nificantly lower in the Ad group than for the Sq group (28 vs 62%, p<0 .005). Histologic cell type can be a prognostic factor for patients un dergoing surgical treatments for NSCLC. One possible reason for the co ntrary results on prognosis by histologic cell type among investigator s may be due to the mixed results of pneumonectomy and lesser resectio ns.