Extent of Surgery for Stage IA Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

To the Editor: Altorki and colleagues (Feb. 9 issue)(1) found similar survival among patients with peripheral stage IA non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who underwent lobar resection and those who underwent sublobar resection. However, the incidence of locoregional recurrence was higher by 3.4 percentage points (95% confidence interval, 1.0 to 8.3) after sublobar resection than after lobar resection, and sublobar resection does not offer counterbalancing advantages such as lower operative mortality and risk of complications or higher quality of life and carries a probable added risk of adverse events due to treatment for recurrent disease. The reported 2-percentage-point lesser deterioration in . . .

Automated summary

Altorki et al. found similar survival between peripheral stage IA non-small-cell lung cancer patients who underwent lobar resection and those who underwent sublobar resection. However, sublobar resection had a higher incidence of locoregional recurrence, without having the benefits of lower operative mortality, lower risk of complications, higher quality of life, and carrying a probable added risk of adverse events for recurrent disease treatment.