2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Ataturk Chest Disease and Thoracic Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey DOI : 10.26663/cts.2022.023 Viewed : 12626 - Downloaded : 663 Background: In parallel with the change in circulating tumor cells, the no-touch isolation technique is offered as an option to reduce recurrences of non-small-cell lung cancer. We aimed to examine the relationship of this technique with recurrence and survival in our clinic.
Materials and Methods: Among 675 patients who were operated on with the diagnosis of lung cancer between 2009 and 2015, 98 patients with tumor size of less than 3 cm in the postoperative pathology report, no visceral pleural invasion or lymph node involvement, and a negative surgical margin were included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups as patients treated with and without the no-touch isolation technique (i.e., a wedge resection group prior to lobectomy and a direct lobectomy group), and the results of recurrence and survival were evaluated statistically.
Results: While adenocarcinoma was observed more frequently in the wedge resection group, squamous cell carcinoma was observed statistically more frequently among patients treated with direct lobectomy (p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in recurrence or survival rates between patients treated with and without the no-touch isolation technique (p = 0.746 and p = 0.689, respectively).
Conclusions: Although wedge resection before surgery is theoretically well grounded, we found that it was not clinically significant as a result of our study. The technique may prove beneficial in reevaluating chemotherapy indications based on circulating tumor cells, especially in early-stage cases where patients have not received chemotherapy, and prospective studies are needed in this regard.
Keywords : lung cancer, wedge resection, circulated tumor cell, thoracic surgery