Non-small cell lung cancer with the tracheal bifurcation involvement. Carinal pneumonectomy or chemo-radiation therapy?

The aim of the study: the aim of this study was to compare the immediate and long-term results of treatment of patients with non-small cell lung cancer with involvement of tracheal bifurcation, which were underwent pneumonectomy with resection of the tracheal bifurcation or radical chemo-radiation therapy (CRT). Materials and methods. We conducted a retrospective non-randomized clinical study with following groups of patients: 1) 65 patients who underwent pneumonectomy with resection of the tracheal bifurcation; 2) 30 patients to whom CRT was performed. Evaluation of the effectiveness of immediate and long-term results was carried out by statistical processing using the Statistic 6.0 program. A case-control analysis was performed to compare two groups. The time of the operation, intra- and postoperative complications was estimated depending on the type of resection of the tracheal bifurcation. Results. The complication rate was 46.1% in the surgical group. In the CRT group complications developed in 13 (43.3%) patients. The overall 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rate in the group of patients with surgical treatment was 56.92, 31.7 and 26.1%, respectively. The median overall survival was 14.5 months. Indicators of 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival in the group of patients who underwent radical CRT were 31.6, 24.4, 16.2%.