The State of the Art in Thoracic Surgery: Treating Lung Cancer Between Tradition and Innovation

Lung cancer is the second most diagnosed cancer and was the primary cause of cancer death worldwide in 2020. Lung cancer treatment is associated with huge costs for patients and society. Consequently, there is an increasing interest on prevention, early detection with screening, and development of new treatments. Surgical management accounts for at least 90% of the activity of thoracic surgery departments. Surgery is the treatment of choice for stages I and II non-small cell lung cancer. In this chapter, we discuss the state of art of thoracic surgery for surgical management of lung cancer. We start describing the milestones of lung cancer treatment, lobectomy, and lymphadenectomy, followed by a description of the traditional and innovative approaches that are currently available. Open lobectomy, and mini-invasive approaches including video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery and robotic assisted thoracoscopic surgery are covered. A brief overview of the innovation and future perspective in thoracic surgery are presented.