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Video-assisted thoracic surgery for lung cancer: republication of a systematic review and a proposal by the guidelines committee of the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery 2014

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Abstract

Background

Patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are candidates for surgical intervention with curative intent. For these early-stage lung cancer surgeries, video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) is considered. The purpose of this article is to propose a recommendation for this according to the evidence and provide information for patients with operable early-stage lung cancer from the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery. The clinical question here is whether VATS lobectomy is recommended for patients with clinical stage I NSCLC.

Methods

The Japanese Association for Chest Surgery guidelines committee reviewed and summarized the available literature and assessed the quality of the evidence. The available literature on VATS was examined using references from MEDLINE. The recommendations were provided according to the Medical Information Network Distribution Service in Japan (Minds).

Results

VATS lobectomy may be considered and applied to patients with clinical stage I NSCLC; however, well-established evidence is lacking. VATS showed better or at least equivalent outcomes regarding intra- or postoperative complications compared with thoracotomy, with less invasiveness. Additionally, long-term survival by VATS lobectomy was suggested to be at least equivalent, although there is a lack of evidence.

Conclusions

VATS lobectomy by an experienced surgeon is associated with minimal invasiveness and an outcome equivalent to that of open lobectomy in stage I NSCLC. (Recommendation grade: Level C1).

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Conflict of interest

The authors have declared that no conflicts of interest exist.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guidelines Committee of Japanese Association for Chest Surgery, Tokyo, Japan

    Shin-ichi Yamashita, Taichiro Goto, Takeshi Mori, Hirotoshi Horio, Yoshihisa Kadota, Takeshi Nagayasu & Akinori Iwasaki

  2. Department of General Thoracic, Breast and Pediatric Surgery, School of Medicine, Fukuoka University, 7-45-1 Nanakuma Jonanku, Fukuoka, 814-0180, Japan

    Shin-ichi Yamashita & Akinori Iwasaki

  3. Department of General Thoracic Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Taichiro Goto

  4. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Kumamoto University Hospital, Kumamoto, Japan

    Takeshi Mori

  5. Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious, Diseases Center Komagome Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Hirotoshi Horio

  6. Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Osaka Prefectural Medical Center for Respiratory and Allergic Diseases, Osaka, Japan

    Yoshihisa Kadota

  7. Department of General Thoracic Surgery, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagasaki, Japan

    Takeshi Nagayasu

Authors
  1. Shin-ichi Yamashita
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  2. Taichiro Goto
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  3. Takeshi Mori
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  4. Hirotoshi Horio
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  5. Yoshihisa Kadota
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  6. Takeshi Nagayasu
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  7. Akinori Iwasaki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shin-ichi Yamashita.

Additional information

This review was submitted at the invitation of the editorial committee.

This article is based on a study first reported in the Journal of the Japan Society for Endoscopic Surgery (in press).

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Yamashita, Si., Goto, T., Mori, T. et al. Video-assisted thoracic surgery for lung cancer: republication of a systematic review and a proposal by the guidelines committee of the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery 2014. Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 62, 701–705 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-014-0467-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11748-014-0467-x

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