Surgery as a therapeutic modality for non-small cell lung cancer is widely accepted in clinical practice. However, the role of surgery for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) remains controversial. Therefore, in the present study a period propensity score matching analysis using the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Registry database was performed to investigate the role of surgery on survival in patients with SCLC. Patients with SCLC between January 2010 and December 2015 were identified from the SEER database, and individual data for each case regarding general clinical characteristics, surgery of primary site (SPS), cause-specific death classification and survival time were retrieved. Differences of cause-specific survival (CSS) between subgroups were estimated by the log-rank test. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the effects of multiple variables on CSS, and differences between the incidences of cause-specific death were examined using a χ2 test. A total of 1,707 records met the inclusion criteria and were retrieved for analysis. There were significant differences of CSS in the clinicopathological features of N (P=0.01), Stage (P<0.01) and Surgery (P<0.01) when comparing non-surgery with surgery, and in N (P<0.001), Stage (P=0.006) and Surgery (P=0.049) when comparing sublobectomy with lobectomy or bilobectomy (lobe/s). Patients who did not receive surgery (P<0.001) or who received sublobectomy (P=0.03) had an increased risk of mortality when compared with patients who received surgery and lobe/s. The findings of the present study indicate that surgery should be taken into consideration when an initial treatment strategy is made in patients for patients with SCLC at clinical stage I–IIA (T1-2,N0,M0), regardless of whether they are >50 years of age, their sex, histology and grade. The results suggest that certain patients with SCLC with stage IIB (N1) can also benefit from lobe/s, although further investigation is required. In addition, lobe/s is preferable to sublobectomy when surgery is performed. However, the present study was unable to comprehensively analyze the efficacy of pneumonectomy for SCLC.

ObjectiveThis study aims to determine the optimal dividing order of anatomic pulmonary resection under uniportal video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (uni-VATS) for patients with right upper peripheral lung cancer.MethodsPatients who met the eligibility criteria were randomly allocated into the aBVA and VAB groups. In the aBVA group, the surgical procedure proceeded from the posterior to the anterior region (from the deeper to the superficial site). In the VAB group, the dissection orders were vein first followed by arterial branches, followed by the bronchus. Clinical data were collected and analyzed.ResultsSixty patients were randomly allocated to the aBVA group (n = 30) and the VAB group (n = 30). The operation time in the aBVA group (230.500 ± 68.360 min) was significantly shorter than that in the VAB group (305.600 ± 107.821 min) (p = 0.01). The blood loss in the aBVA group (104.000 ± 70.935 ml) was significantly lower than that in the VAB group (391.000 ± 625.175 ml) (p = 0.01). Two patients in the VAB group underwent conversion to 2-portal VATS. The number of lymph nodes (13.367 ± 5.436 vs. 10.333 ± 7.279, p = 0.072) and lymph node stations (5.067 ± 1.574 vs. 4.467 ± 2.345, p = 0.567) were comparable between the two groups. The differences in the postoperative drainage tube time (5.033 ± 3.113 vs. 6.467 ± 4.447 days, p = 0.278) and hospital stay (8.233 ± 3.390 vs. 9.433 ± 4.523 days, p = 0.361) were not significantly different between the two groups.ConclusionCompared with the VBA procedure, aBVA is easier for patients with right upper peripheral lung cancer who undergo uni-VATS lobectomy.

The present study aimed to investigate the changes in early postoperative lung volume in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) and to analyze the effects of the clinical characteristics on the lung volume of the patients. Therefore, 38 patients with NSCLC, who planned to undergo VATS at the