Survival and Prognosis After Pneumonectomy for Lung Cancer in the Elderly

The risk of pneumonectomy over the age of 70. A case–control study☆

“…In fact, mortality after pneumonectomy is equivalent to mortality in younger patients only when very selective criteria of selection are adopted [4]. When less restrictive criteria are used, mortality dramatically increases well above 10% [5,6,12,13].…”

“…The Lung Cancer Study Group reported a postoperative mortality rate over the age of 70 after pneumonectomy lower (5.9%) than after lobectomy (7.3%), probably due to strict preoperative selection [4]. More recently, several authors have reported postoperative mortality after pneumonectomy over the age of 70 as being well above 10% [5,6], probably due to the use of less restrictive indications. The main limitation of these reports is that a selected elderly population is usually compared to an unselected population of younger patients, making the assessment of the additional risk, purely due to chronological age, unreliable.…”

Outcome of Surgery for Lung Cancer in Young and Elderly Patients

“…23 Studies on the survival of young and elderly patients undergoing resection of lung cancer have found different results. Some authors report lower survival rates in elderly groups, [1][2][3][12][13][14]23,24 some report equal survival rates, 8,11,18 and some report higher survival rates 4,6,9,10 than in younger groups. However, the groups are highly heterogeneous in most of these studies, which causes differing results and leads to opposing ideas.…”

Under-Investigation of Older People with Abnormal Chest Radiographs

“…Mizushima et al [14] found the operative mortality in those under 70 years to be 3.2% and in those over 70 years to be 22.2%. It is unfortunate that no older patients were referred for surgery since there is evidence that even octogenarians and older high-risk patients may survive and benefit from surgery [15,16].…”