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Detection of true pathologic stage I lung cancer in a screening program and the effect on survival
Author(s) -
Melamed Myron R.,
Flehinger Betty J.,
Zaman Muhammad B.,
Heelan Robert T.,
Hallerman Ellen T.,
Martini Nael
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19810301)47:5+<1182::aid-cncr2820471322>3.0.co;2-4
Subject(s) - medicine , lung cancer , stage (stratigraphy) , mediastinum , dissection (medical) , thoracotomy , cancer , lung , surgery , radiology , oncology , paleontology , biology
One‐hundred‐sixty‐nine lung cancers have occurred to date among 10,040 cigarette smoking men who participated in the New York Lung Cancer Detection Program. Almost 40% of the cases, 65, were still Stage I when their disease was diagnosed; 62 had thoracotomy and resection, and in 57, mediastinal node dissection confirmed that the mediastinum was free of metastases (“true pathologic” Stage I). Fifty‐four of the 62 (87%) are still alive at this time, while only 15 of 104 (14%) of those with Stage II and III lung cancers are alive. Only two patients of the 62 in Stage I who were treated by resection died of lung cancer, both with T 2 tumors. Two others are alive with metastases, one died postoperatively, and five died of other causes without evidence of lung cancer. The estimated probability of survival for true Stage I lung cancer is over 90% at five years, and close to 40% of all lung cancers can be detected in this favorable stage by present radiologic and cytologic screening techniques. Cancer 47:1182–1187, 1981.