Introduction: Surgery remains the potentially curative treatment for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Despite this, tumor recurrence is the most common cause of treatment failure after surgery. Methods: Data were collected retrospectively from clinical files of patients who underwent lung surgery for NSCLC from January 2008 to December 2012 in a University Hospital. Demographic data, tumor characteristics, type of surgery and recurrence were recorded. A comparison of the distribution of variables using adjustment tests was made. Results: The study included 102 patients, 68.6% were male with a mean age of 63.7 ± 9.3 years old. The majority of tumors had a peripheral location (72.5%) and consisted of adenocarcinomas (61.8%). The most frequently performed surgery was lobectomy. Recurrence was noted in 43.1% of cases. Mean disease-free survival was 57.9 ± 3.8 months. Multifactorial analyses showed that stage IIIA, tumor located in other lobes than the right lower lobe and pleural invasion were independent predictors of recurrence. Conclusion: Our recurrence rate was similar to those in the international literature. As in other studies, we found a positive relation between the lymphatic permeation and pleural invasion and the risk of lung cancer recurrence. We consider that some characteristics of the tumor should be assessed to define alternative modalities of treatment and follow-up in order to predict and rapidly recognize the recurrence.

This study suggests that clinical evaluation of biochemical values, bacteriological results and malignant tumor diagnosis may not be enough to predict post-pleurodesis relapse with high accuracy. Furthermore, we observed, in ten years of pleurodesis performed in our Hospital, that pleurodesis is an effective life prolonging therapy for patients that fit the criteria for this intervention.

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