Surgical treatment of low and intermediate grade lung net

Abstract

Background: Carcinoids now constitute complex tumours which require a multidisciplinary approach and long-term follow-up. Surgical intervention is nowadays confirmed as the mainstay of treatment.

Methods: From 1980 to 2015, EMETNE-SEPAR collected 1,339 patients treated surgically for bronchial carcinoid (1,154 typical and 185 atypical carcinoids). Standard and conservative procedures were considered with regard to surgical approach. All the patients with carcinoid were pathologically coded following the standards of the 7th edition 2009 TNM lung cancer staging. Statistical analyses were performed in order to determine whether histology, nodal affectation and surgical technique were associated with significant differences in survival, presence of metastases and local recurrence.

Results: The influence of the surgical procedure on overall survival, the presence of metastases and local recurrence were demonstrated as no significant in our sample in central tumours (P>0.05). Sublobar resections in peripheral tumours are related to a decrease in survival in typical carcinoids (P=0.008) with nodal involvement and an increased number of recurrences in atypical carcinoids without nodal involvement (P=0.018).

Conclusions: In central typical carcinoid, the use of lung-sparing bronchoplastic techniques could influence local recurrence in some cases. This observation demands the intraoperative pathologic verification of an adequate surgical margin by frozen section. Peripheral typical carcinoids have been surgically treated, occasionally, by sublobar resection. However, in peripheral atypical carcinoid after a limited sublobar resection the observed increase of the probability of local recurrence makes it, in our opinion, not advisable.