[Clinical characteristics after surgery of non-small cell lung cancer which measures 20 mm or less in diameter].

Today's advances in diagnostic image-technologies often enable us to find small lung cancers. However, we have few definite strategies including how to diagnosis and treat them. In this study, we performed a retrospective analysis of 122 consecutive patients who underwent surgery for non-small cell lung cancer 20 mm or less in diameter to clarify the clinical features of small lung cancer. Of 122 patients, there were 114 patients of pN0, and 8 patients with lymph node metastasis. Seventy three patients underwent lobectomy, 45 underwent segmentectomy, and 4 underwent wedge resection based on the findings of preoperative CT and anatomical and oncological view during operation. Overall survival rate( OS) and progression free survival( PFS) at 3-year was, 94% and 84%, respectively. There were no differences in OS or PFS between lobectomy group and limited resection group, which might suggest that we adapted appropriate surgical procedures. Multivariate analysis revealed that pathological pleural invasion, lymphatic vessel invasion, and vascular vessel invasion were likely to be unfavorable prognostic-factors. We believe that further investigations should be required to clarify the characteristics of small lung cancer.