New Surgical Options for Elderly Lung Cancer Patients

To understand the size of the aging population in the United States, the imminent need to include the elderly in clinicalstudies on lung cancer, and the safe potential of video-assistedthoracic surgery, and to change awareness of the elderly's need forand ability to undergo treatment for lung cancer, clinical studies ofvideo-assisted thoracic surgery in patients ≥ 70 years of age arepresented. The elderly are a fast-growing part of the Americanpopulation who are at high risk for lung cancer and should be includedin clinical studies. Age alone should not be a contradiction tothoracic surgical interventions when video thoracoscopy is performed astreatment.