Investigation of patients with apparently inoperable lung cancer

Over a three-year period, 30 patients were referred to a multidisciplinary lung cancer group for palliative radiotherapy of presumed unresectable bronchogenic cancer on the basis of radiological findings. Further investigation, including surgical staging, demonstrated that 10 were candidates for surgical resection. Nine patients are alive and free of disease at a median follow-up of 25.8 months. These results demonstrate that chest x-ray and computed tomography of the chest may not be specific enough to rule out the possibility of surgical cure.