Surgical treatment to achieve cure

The goal of surgical treatment for lung cancer is to achieve cure via complete tumor resection. Since the 1990s, the 5-year survival rate of lung cancer patients treated with surgical resection has increased remarkably in Japan. Three factors have contributed to the improvement of prognosis in these patients: 1) the increasing frequency of resection for small-sized lung cancers; 2) advancements in adjuvant chemotherapy for controlling micrometastases in stage IB-IIIA cases; and 3) progress in trimodality therapy for locally advanced lung cancers, including c III A/N2 disease and superior sulcus tumors. Given the increasing 5-year survival rate of patients treated with surgical resection, there have also been increases in the incidence of metachronous second lung cancer. We report our experiences with metachronous second lung cancer after surgical resection.