IntroductionIn most developed countries, lung cancer is associated with the highest mortality rate among all cancers. The number of elderly patients with lung cancer is increasing, reflecting the global increase in aging population. Patients with impaired lung or cardiac function are at a high risk during intubated general anesthesia, which may preclude them from surgical lung cancer treatment. We evaluated the safety and survival of non-intubated video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) versus those of intubated thoracoscopic surgery for surgical resection for lung cancer in older patients.MethodsPatients aged ≥75 years who underwent non-intubated and intubated VATS resection with pathologically confirmed non-small cell lung cancer, using a combination of thoracic epidural anesthesia or intercostal nerve block and intra-thoracic vagal block with target-controlled sedation, from January 2011 to December 2019 were included. Ultimately, 79 non-intubated patients were matched to 158 patients based on age, sex, body mass index, family history, comorbidity index, pulmonary function (forced expiratory volume in one second/ forced vital capacity [%]), and disease stage. The endpoints were overall survival and recurrence progression survival.ResultsAll patients had malignant lung lesions. Data regarding conversion data and the postoperative result were collected. Both groups had comparable preoperative demographic and cancer staging profiles. The anesthetic duration in the non-intubated group was shorter than that in the intubated group, which showed a significantly higher mean number of lymph nodes harvested (intubated vs non-intubated, 8.3 vs. 6.4) and lymph stations dissected (3.0 vs. 2.6). Intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate and postoperative ICU stay were significantly longer in the intubated group. The complication rate was higher and hospital stay were longer in the intubated group, but these differences were not significant (12% vs. 7.6%; p = .07, respectively).ConclusionsIn the elderly, non-intubated thoracoscopic surgery provides similar survival results as the intubated approach, although fewer lymph nodes are harvested. Non-intubated surgery may serve as an alternative to intubated general anesthesia in managing lung cancer in carefully selected elderly patients with a high risk of impaired pulmonary and cardiac function.

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Background: As the overall survival of patients with cancer continues to improve, the incidence of second primary malignancies seems to be increasing. Previous studies have shown controversial results regarding the survival of patients with primary lung cancer with previous extrapulmonary malignancies. This study aimed to determine the clinical picture and outcomes of this particular subgroup of patients.Materials and Methods: We included 2,408 patients who underwent pulmonary resection for primary lung cancer at our institute between January 1, 2011 and December 30, 2017 in this retrospective study. Medical records were extracted and clinicopathological parameters and postoperative prognoses were compared between patients with lung cancer with and without previous extrapulmonary malignancies.Results: There were 200 (8.3%) patients with previous extrapulmonary malignancies. Breast cancer (30.5%), gastrointestinal cancer (17%), and thyroid cancer (9%) were the most common previous extrapulmonary malignancies. Age, sex, a family history of lung cancer, and preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen levels were significantly different between the two groups. Patients with previous breast or thyroid cancer had significantly better overall survival than those without previous malignancies. Conversely, patients with other previous extrapulmonary malignancies had significantly poorer overall survival (p < 0.001). The interval between the two cancer diagnoses did not significantly correlate with clinical outcome.Conclusion: Although overall survival was lower in patients with previous extrapulmonary malignancies, previous breast or thyroid cancer did not increase mortality. Our findings may help surgeons to predict prognosis in this subgroup of patients with primary lung cancer.

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With the growing evidence of clinical benefit of minimally invasive esophagectomy (MIE) combined video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and laparoscopy procedures, we describe how these procedures can be performed with single-incision both in the abdominal and thoracic phases. Clinical observation of the midterm results has demonstrated its feasibility and benefit of relieving postoperative pain.However, the long-term impact on the survival of the patients requires to be evaluated in the future.