The Diagnosis and Treatment for Multiple Primary Lung Cancers

Based on 27 cases of multiple primary lung cancer which were treated in the Department of Surgery, Osaka Prefectural Habikino Hospital, the diagnosis and treatment of the disease was discussed. The criteria for diagnosis in our hospital is as follows: In addition to the definition of Warren and Gates, or Martini and Melamed, our diagnostic criteria include histopathological findings of early stage, degree of differentiation, subtype, cell structure, vascular or lymphatic invasion, degree of scar formation and number of lesions in a lobe. The 5-year survival rate in the 16 cases of synchronous type, all of which were surgically treated, was 33.3%, and in the other 11 metachronous type cases the results were varied but, 4 cases survived longer than 3 years. These results were encouraging and suggested that our diagnostic criteria are justified.