Clinical analysis in patients undergoing extended resection of pT3 non-small cell lung cancer

Among pT3 cases there contain various subgroups in terms of the organ which is involved in. We analyzed medical records of 85 consecutive patients who underwent extended surgery with diagnosis of pT3 excluding interlober invasion. As regards to the site of invasion, there are not significant differences in survival between pleural invasion, chest wall involvement, pericardial invasion, and diaphragmatic invasion. However, survival of patients who showed involvement of main bronchus seemed better than other groups. Survival of pT3 cases are in part determined by lymph node involvement, N0 group showed 36.0% 5 year survival rate whereas N1 group 20.0%, and there are no patient with N2 disease who survived 5 years. Among pleural and chest wall involvement group, N0 group showed 34.2% 5 year survival and there are no survival in N1 and N2 group. As regards to histologic subgroups, there are not significant differences between each group. Thus we conclude that in pT3 cases, N0 cases are the best candidate for surgical resection, and that adjuvant therapy is necessary for those with N1 or N2 involvement. Cases with bronchial extension should not be argued in the same field of locally invasive lung cancer because of better survival.