[Results of the surgical treatment of locally-advanced bronchus carcinoma (stage III)].

117 patients with stage III bronchogenic carcinoma (AJC) underwent thoracotomy after careful staging between 1977 and 1985. 13 patients were found to be inoperable, while in 104 resection was performed. Operative mortality was 8.5% for 82 patients with curative resection and 27% for 22 patients with non-curative resection. Histologically there were 64 epidermoid and 23 adenomatous carcinomas. 79 of the 117 patients had lymph node metastases, 49 of them in mediastinal (N2) nodes of whom 42 could be resected. The absolute 5-year survival rate amounted to 9% for all 104 patients, 12% for 82 patients following curative resection and 0% for 22 patients following non-curative resection. 14% of the latter patients survived for two years. Survival rate after to years was 29% for patients in stage T3N0 + T3N1 and 35% for those in stage T1, T2, T3N2, but 15% and 0% respectively after five years. 5-year survival rate was 15% for patients with epidermoid carcinoma, but 0% for adenomatous carcinoma. Mean survival time for the 58 patients who died late following curative resection was 14.3 months, for those with epidermoid carcinoma 15.9 months and with adenomatous carcinoma 15.4 months, following pneumonectomy 13.1 months and following partial resection 17 months, and for the 16 patients who died late after non-curative resection 12.7 months. It was not influenced by postoperative irradiation in 20 patients (13 months). No statistical significance could be demonstrated for all these results. Nevertheless, they seem to indicate that in stage III bronchogenic carcinoma patients with epidermoid type have a fairly good prognosis, while with mediastinal lymph node metastasis the outcome is poor.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)