Surgical treatment of lung cancer in patients over the age of 70 years.

Eighty patients of 70 years of age with lung cancer have been treated since 1964. Forty-eight received no therapy or chemotherapy and/or irradiation. Mean survival was 3.5 to 10 months, and only three (6%) survived for 2 years. Twenty-two of 32 patients selected for thoracotomy underwent resection for cure (70%). The operative mortality rate was 18% for resection, and 64% of the patients survived for at least 2 years. The incidence of exploratory thoracotomy decreased in the last 5 years of the study with the introduction of more rigorous preoperative evaluation. The poor survival rate without resection and the favorable survival rate following recovery from resection support the continued use of surgical resection for lung cancer in elderly patients, despite an increased operative risk.