Unsuspected residual disease at the resection margin after surgery for lung cancer: fate of patients after long-term follow-up

Abstract

The prognosis of our stage I or II patients with microresidual tumour on the bronchial resection margin (R1) was similar to that of the patients in the same disease stage, whose resection was microscopically radical (R0) and the same was true of the patients in stage III. In patients with residual tumour cells on the bronchial stump we did not observe worsened long-term survivals.