Surgical Management and Outcomes of Elderly Patients With Early Stage Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Elderly patients with NSCLC should not be denied pulmonary resection on the basis of chronologic age alone. Among patients aged ≥ 70 years, 90-day mortality compared acceptably with mortality among younger matched patients. Additionally, the data show that for older patients, a 90-day mortality better represents their real mortality risk than 30- or 60-day figures. Our contemporary, multiinstitutional data importantly reveal that elderly patients, compared with their younger counterparts, do not have increased morbidity, incidence, or severity after pulmonary resection.