Clinicopathologic Characteristics and Prognosis of Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Who Undergo Pulmonary Segmentectomy

This study retrospectively investigated the clinical characteristics and prognosis of the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who underwent segmentectomy as either intentional or passive limited surgery. The subjects included in this study comprised 72 patients who underwent segmentectomy at our hospital. There were 23 patients who underwent intentional segmentectomy. The histologic type was adenocarcinoma in all of these patients. Regarding the tumor size, 9 tumors were 1 cm or less in diameter, 13 were 1.1 to 2 cm, and 1 was 2.5 cm. All patients who underwent intentional segmentectomy were alive without any recurrence as of the last follow-up examination. A passive segmentectomy was performed for 49 patients. The reasons for passive segmentectomy were due to the presence of metachronous multiple lung cancer in 14 patients, synchronous multiple lung cancer in 9 patients, age above 80 years in 12 patients, reduced pulmonary function in 8 patients, and moderate to severe cardiovascular disease in 4 patients; another 2 patients were receiving treatment for another primary cancer. The 5-year survival rate of the patients who underwent passive segmentectomy was 69.8%. There was no postoperative mortality in either of the groups. This study showed that all of the patients who underwent intentional segmentectomy were alive without any recurrence, thus suggesting that the procedure is associated with sufficient oncologic efficacy, along with preservation of the lung function. The passive segmentectomy was a feasible procedure and was an alternative procedure with an acceptable overall survival rate in high-risk patients with underlying medical comorbidities.