Evaluation of the surgical treatment of lung cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is the most common malignancy in men and in the entire human population. It is considered that 2,200,000 new patients are detected annually in the world (Globcan 2020), 475,000 in Europe (Globcan 2020), i.e. 1,135 in the Republic of North Macedonia (Globcan 2020). The treatment is multimodal, and several factors influence its choice. Surgical treatment is one of the modalities of treatment and its application depends on numerous factors -histological structure of the tumor, stage of the disease, satisfactory respiratory reserves, satisfactory cardiac reserves, general condition of the patient, etc. At the clinic for thoracic and vascular surgery in 2022, only 59 patients were surgically treated, which is 85% of the total surgically treated in the Republic of North Macedonia. Out of the 59 patients, 44 (74.6%) were men. The average age of the operated patients was 64.22 years, and 37 (62.7%) underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy preoperatively to reduce the tumor and stage of the disease. Patients who were operated on were mostly in IIIA stage 16 (27.12%). The small percentage of operated patients, 7.7%, and the particularly high percentage of operated patients at an advanced stage indicates that patients are detected at an advanced stage of the disease, which is a contraindication for surgery. Introduction of screening for lung cancer using computed tomography in risk groups will significantly change the therapeutic approach to this group of patients, as well as the outcome of their treatment.