A greater number of patients with lung cancer should be offered surgical treatment, experts say.Researchers at the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) and King's College London believe thousands of lives could be saved if more patients underwent surgery.
An analysis of data on more than 77,300 lung cancer patients in England, all of whom were diagnosed between 2004 and 2006, revealed great variation across the country in the percentage of patients who had surgery.
Areas with the highest rates of surgery typically had the best survival rates and the researchers calculated that more than 5,400 lives could have been extended during the three-year period if all areas had boosted their surgery rates to those achieved by the best-performing areas.
The findings are published in the European Journal of Cancer and follow recent calls from the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery to boost lung cancer surgery rates.
Co-author Dr Mick Peake said: 'For the majority of lung cancer patients, surgery is the only way to give them a chance of being cured, but England still lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to operating on these patients.'
Sarah Lyness, executive director of policy and information at Cancer Research UK, said that all lung cancer patients who would benefit from surgery should be given the option.
'And we must work towards diagnosing lung cancer early enough so that surgery is a viable option,' she added.
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