Oxygen uptake kinetics during cardiopulmonary exercise testing and postoperative complications in patients with lung cancer.

It is accepted that cardiopulmonary exercise testing is one of the most valuable parameters, especially peak oxygen uptake (VO(2)), for the evaluation of risk assessment in lung cancer surgery. It therefore represents an attractive way of identifying a patient at high risk for postoperative complications. However, many patients do not achieve the maximal or predictive level during an incremental exercise testing.