Surgical treatment of lung cancer

  With the development of medical science, various advanced treatments have emerged, including thoracoscopic radical lung cancer surgery. The common patient’s notion that open-chest surgery under direct vision is more clean and thorough is completely wrong. Because it is difficult to detect some small metastatic lymph nodes and lesions with the naked eye alone.  Therefore, in radical lung cancer surgery, regional lymph nodes can be cleared more thoroughly, so that the tumor lesions can be removed more completely and the postoperative effect is better; a large number of foreign studies have also confirmed that the postoperative survival time of patients with minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery is significantly higher than that of conventional open-chest surgery, which is mainly related to small surgical incision, less trauma, faster postoperative recovery and better immune protection. This is mainly related to factors such as smaller incision, less trauma, faster postoperative recovery, better immune protection, and more complete tumor removal.  Of course, the difficulty of thoracoscopic surgery is higher than that of conventional open-heart surgery, which makes the number of doctors who can completely use thoracoscopy instead of open-heart surgery relatively small.  Even a veteran specialist with rich experience in thoracic surgery and thousands of open-heart surgeries cannot perform full thoracoscopic radical lung cancer surgery without skilled thoracoscopic techniques; even in North America, where medicine is advanced, less than 1/3 of thoracic surgeons can perform thoracoscopic lung cancer radical surgery. The proportion is even lower in China, less than 20%. After years of development, thoracoscopic techniques have been continuously improved.  It has now completely replaced conventional open-heart surgery for radical lung cancer treatment, and conventional open-heart surgery has declined to complement minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery. Only about less than 10% of lung cancer patients need the assistance of conventional open-heart surgery because of the involvement of important organs such as pulmonary vessels that are difficult to be removed, etc. For these tumor patients, we have successfully adopted radiotherapy to shrink the tumor and then successfully performed full thoracoscopic (completely perforated only) radical lung cancer surgery with good results.  Of course, there are indications for radical thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery. For some patients who cannot tolerate surgery due to the function of heart and lung organs or advanced lung cancer, they are not suitable, but they can use thoracoscopic biopsy to clarify the diagnosis or remove the primary focus (peripheral lung cancer only) to increase the effect of radiotherapy.  Through our efforts, we have successfully operated on tumors over 5cm in diameter and up to 15cm in diameter in recent years, with a thoracoscopic rate of over 90% and a transit rate of less than 5%, and have successfully operated on more than 500 patients from May 2012 to February 2015. We are the first in China to carry out bilateral thoracoscopic resection of difficult lung lesions in one stage, (e.g., left-sided pulmonary herpes resection + right-sided radical lung cancer resection, right middle lung lobectomy + left lower lung lobectomy + left upper lung lingual resection for patients with bronchial expansion combined with lung cancer, radical lung cancer resection on one side + contralateral metastases resection, etc.), with good results.  We widely carry out full thoracoscopic double sleeve resection and total lung resection for central type lung cancer (currently more than 90% of doctors in China choose open surgery), as well as difficult thoracoscopic surgery for advanced age (over 85 years old) and combined cardiovascular disease; we have carried out many new technologies in China such as single orifice and single operating orifice. Among them, the difficult thoracoscopic techniques are in the national advanced ranks.  Figure 1 shows the incision after “single-port thoracoscopic right lower lung lobectomy + lymph node dissection (right lower lung cancer radical surgery)”; Figure 2 shows the incision after “single-port thoracoscopic left upper lung lobectomy + lymph node dissection (left upper lung cancer radical surgery)”. The choice of single-port, single-operating-port or multi-port surgery depends mainly on the disease. The percentage of radical surgery in China is even lower, less than 20%. After years of development, thoracoscopic techniques have been continuously improved.  It has now completely replaced conventional open-heart surgery for radical lung cancer, and conventional open-heart surgery has declined to complement minimally invasive thoracoscopic surgery. Only about less than 10% of lung cancer patients need the assistance of conventional open-heart surgery because of the involvement of important organs such as pulmonary vessels that are difficult to be removed, etc. For these tumor patients, we have successfully adopted radiotherapy to shrink the tumor and then successfully performed full thoracoscopic (completely perforated only) radical lung cancer surgery with good results.  Of course, there are indications for radical thoracoscopic lung cancer surgery. For some patients who cannot tolerate surgery due to the function of heart and lung organs or advanced lung cancer, they are not suitable, but they can use thoracoscopic biopsy to clarify the diagnosis or remove the primary focus (peripheral lung cancer only) to increase the effect of radiotherapy.  Through our efforts, we have successfully operated on tumors over 5cm in diameter and up to 15cm in diameter in recent years, with a thoracoscopic rate of over 90% and a transit rate of less than 5%, and have successfully operated on more than 500 patients from May 2012 to February 2015. We are the first in China to carry out bilateral thoracoscopic resection of difficult lung lesions in one stage, (e.g., left-sided pulmonary herpes resection + right-sided radical lung cancer resection, right middle lung lobectomy + left lower lung lobectomy + left upper lung lingual resection for patients with bronchial expansion combined with lung cancer, radical lung cancer resection on one side + contralateral metastases resection, etc.), with good results.  We widely carry out full thoracoscopic double sleeve resection and total lung resection for central type lung cancer (currently more than 90% of doctors in China choose open surgery), as well as difficult thoracoscopic surgery for advanced age (over 85 years old) and combined cardiovascular disease; we have carried out many new technologies in China such as single orifice and single operating orifice. Among them, the difficult thoracoscopic techniques are in the national advanced ranks.  Figure 1 shows the incision after “single-port thoracoscopic right lower lung lobectomy + lymph node dissection (right lower lung cancer radical surgery)”; Figure 2 shows the incision after “single-port thoracoscopic left upper lung lobectomy + lymph node dissection (left upper lung cancer radical surgery)”. The choice of single-port, single-operating-port or multi-port surgery depends on the condition.