Prognosis of resected non-small cell lung cancer with pleural plaques on intrathoracic findings

The prognosis of patients with lung cancer who demonstrate pleural plaques intraoperatively, which may be associated with exposure to asbestos, is unclear. Here, we compared the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of these patients to those of patients without pleural plaques. We included patients who underwent curative-intent resection for non-small cell lung cancer. We retrospectively investigated the relationship of intrathoracic findings of pleural plaques with clinicopathological features and prognosis. Pleural plaques were found in 121/701 patients (17.3%) during surgery. The incidence of squamous cell carcinoma (P