ABSTRACT
Graham performed the first successful pneumonectomy for lung cancer in 1933. Pulmonary resection was also applied to patients with tuberculosis before effective drugs were developed. Lobectomy became the standard procedure as a radical resection for lung cancer in the 1950s. Cahan described procedures of mediastinal and hilar lymph node dissection for pneumonectomy and lobectomy in 1951 and 1960. Bronchoplasty and vasculoplasty were introduced to lung cancer surgery in the 1970s. Techniques for locally advanced lung cancer invading great vessels and/or the heart were described in the 1960s and were applied as clinical practice in the 1980s. Limited resection, that is segmentectomy or partial resection of the lung, were examined as potential operations for lung cancer. However, the results of a randomized controlled trial revealed that local and/or regional recurrence occurred more frequently in the limited resection group than in the conventional lobectomy group and this translated into a survival difference. VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery) lobectomy has been introduced as an option for early stage lung cancer in recent years.
