Objectives: Division of incompletely lobulated fissures is often performed during surgical resection of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC); however, the effect of lobulation on tumour recurrence is unclear. This study aimed to assess the prognostic effect of lobulation in patients with NSCLC according to their preoperative and operative findings.
Methods: A retrospective study of patients with p-stage I NSCLC who underwent lobectomy was conducted between April 2008 and April 2016. A receiver operating characteristic curve of the number of stapling cartridges was constructed to determine the optimal cut-off value. Patients who underwent division of the interlobar fissure using 2 or more stapling cartridges (H group) were compared with those who did not undergo division of the interlobar fissure or who underwent division of the interlobar fissure using only 1 cartridge (L group).
Results: The study included 85 patients, and of these patients, 46 were included in the L group and 39 in the H group. Survival analysis showed better disease-specific survival (P = 0.0135) and disease-free survival (P = 0.0412) in the L group. Cox regression analysis showed better disease-specific survival in patients who underwent division of the interlobar fissure with few stapler cartridges than in those who underwent division with more stapler cartridges (P = 0.021).
Conclusions: The extent and status of incompletely lobulated fissures are significant risk factors for disease-specific survival in patients with resected p-stage I NSCLC.
Keywords: Early stage; Lobulation; Non-small-cell lung cancer; Prognosis; Stapler cartridges.
© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.