Surgical aspects in the treatment of lung cancer

Purpose of review: The treatment of lung cancer has been most successful when surgery is involved. This review is a succinct overview of lung cancer treatment from the thoracic surgeon's perspective over the past 2 years. Recent findings: Starting with the evidence-based guidelines developed by the American College of Chest Physicians, the main themes in the literature are a multimodality approach and the miniaturization of surgical approaches. Palliative procedures, staging, and extension of surgery to patients previously thought inoperable are other subjects covered. Summary: We are standing on the verge of having a definitive answer to the 20-year-old question whether adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy benefits patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. Sufficient data will be available shortly to determine whether minimally invasive surgical approaches yield similar long-term outcomes as traditional approaches.