Surgical Treatment in Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Single-Center Experience and Survival.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of patients with different stages of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) who underwent surgical treatment.

Material and methods: This retrospective study consisted of 13 patients with SCLC at a tertiary care health center. This study was conducted between 2011 and 2018 at Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Thoracic Surgery Department. Patient follow-up data were collected from medical files. Patients were analyzed according to age, sex, site of resection, clinical stage, pathological stage, recurrence, operation type, chemotherapy, radiotherapy.

Results: The study group consisted of 3 females and 10 males (n = 13). The mean age of the patients was 65 ± 9.3 (52-85) years. The most common location of the primary tumor was the right upper lobe (6 patients, 46.2%). The mean tumor size was 4.36 ± 2.38 cm (1-8.5). In our study, 3 patients had already metastases (2 brain and 1 had metastases in more than 2 anatomic sites). Patients with solitary metastases, who underwent lung resection and metastasis excision had similar survival according to patients without metastases.

Conclusion: Our results show that surgical treatment in SCLC could be contributed to the survival of patients. Therefore, patients must be given a chance for surgery, especially considering that the advances in diagnostic and surgical capabilities have increased the likelihood of early diagnosis and effective surgery.