DURHAM, N.C. -- Patients who undergo a minimally invasive lung cancer surgery called thoracoscopic lobectomy may derive more benefit from the chemotherapy that follows, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. These patients also have shorter hospital stays and accelerated recovery time compared with patients who have their tumors removed using the traditional surgical approach that involves opening the chest.
"This study showed that patients who had the minimally invasive operation were less likely to experience delays in receiving chemotherapy or a reduction in the amount of chemotherapy we were able to give," said Thomas D'Amico, M.D., a lung surgeon and senior investigator on the study. "Chemotherapy after surgery has been shown to improve survival in lung cancer patients, so the more effectively we deliver that chemotherapy, the better."
The researchers published the findings in the April 2007 issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. The study was funded by Duke's Department of Surgery.
Thoracoscopic lobectomy is performed through two or three small incisions in the side of the chest. Surgeons insert a camera through one of the incisions and view the inside of the chest on a video screen, while manipulating instruments through the other incisions to remove the tumors. Open surgery to remove lung tumors -- called thoracotomy -- requires surgeons to make larger incisions and spread or cut the ribs in order to access the patient's lungs.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/dumc-mil040907.php
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