Fifteen years surgical experience with carcinoma of the lung.

This review has emphasized the need to manage carcinoma of the lung with a systematic approach. Diagnostic and staging procedures should be performed to prevent unnecessary thoracotomy. In patients with limited pulmonary reserve, segmentectomy or wedge resection is an acceptable procedure. A staging mediastinal node dissection should be included in every resection for lung cancer. Those patients with positive mediastinal nodes found in this manner should receive postoperative mediastinal irradiation.