Study objective: To assess the outcome of lung cancer with invasion be
yond interlobar pleura and to clarify whether it should be treated in
the same way as invasion to the parietal pleura or to other visceral p
leura. Design: Retrospective analysis. Setting: Tokyo Medical College
Hospital. Patients: Eighteen resected non-small cell lung cancers with
invasion beyond interlobar pleura were studied. The outcomes of those
patients, those with parietal pleural invasion, and those with other
visceral pleural invasion were compared. Patients with rib invasion, m
ediastinal organ invasion, or distant metastasis were excluded. Result
s: The 5-year survival rate for patients with invasion beyond interlob
ar pleura was 34.2% and the median survival time was 56.5 months. The
outcome was significantly better than that of patients with parietal p
leural invasion. There was no significant difference between the outco
me of invasion beyond interlobar pleura and that of other visceral ple
ural invasion. In patients without lymph node metastasis, similar resu
lts were obtained. There was no difference between the outcome of pati
ents with invasion beyond interlobar pleura, who undergo lobectomy wit
h a parietal resection of the invaded lobe, and that of patients with
visceral pleural invasion, who undergo lobectomy, Conclusions: The beh
avior of patients with invasion beyond interlobar pleura is different
from that of patients with parietal pleural invasion and should be cat
egorized as T2, The optimum operative method was lobectomy with only p
arietal resection of the invaded lobe to preserve the pulmonary functi
on.