With the further acceleration of the aging process of our population, the high number of 300 million smokers and 500 million passive smokers, and the intensification of air pollution and environmental pollution, the incidence and mortality rate of lung cancer in China continue to rise. The annual number of lung cancer deaths is close to one million. Hu Mu, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University
Happily, with the rapid development of China’s economy, the continuous improvement of people’s living standard and health awareness, and the promotion and popularization of health checkups for urban middle-aged and elderly people, the diagnosis rate of early-stage lung cancer is getting higher and higher, and more and more early-stage lung cancer can be treated radically through minimally invasive surgery in clinical practice.
Minimally invasive thoracic surgery techniques and televised thoracoscopic lobectomy for early stage lung cancer can achieve the same radical treatment effect and long-term survival as traditional open-heart surgery, while patients’ postoperative quality of life is significantly improved. The length of hospitalization and postoperative recovery time were also significantly reduced. The required postoperative adjuvant treatment measures and tools can also be started as scheduled. For example, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy are mostly administered 2-4 weeks after surgery.
It should be emphasized that: firstly, lung cancer must be staged before treatment; secondly, lung cancer requires multidisciplinary comprehensive treatment. The era of “one knife” alone has long passed, and the view that drugs are all-powerful and single radiotherapy can cure lung cancer no longer exists. Early-stage lung cancer is mainly treated by surgery, and late-stage lung cancer is mainly treated by chemotherapy. All stage II non-small cell lung cancers require adjuvant therapy after surgery to improve long-term survival.