Advances Of Sublobar Resection For Early Stage Lung Cancer

With the development of imaging technology, an increasing number of patients with lung cancer are found at an early stage by small lung nodules. Lobectomy remains the standard procedure for the surgical management of early stage lung cancer. However, a growing body of evidence has suggested that sublobar resection may achieve long-term outcomes similar to those with lobectomy in early stage lung cancer, especially that 2cm or less in size and predominantly ground glass opacity appearance on imaging. The therapeutic effect of sublobar resection is affected by multifactor such as size of tumor, pathological classification, surgical procedure, age, coexisting illness, and so forth. Whether could sublobar resection, currently an alternative to lobectomy for high-risk patients with limited cardiopulmonary function, be a promising substitution of lobectomy for the new standard management of selected patients with early stage lung cancer needs further prospective trials to confirm.