Postoperative Empyema Improves Survival in Lung Cancer

Abstract

A retrospective chart study revealed improved survival rates in patients in whom empyema developed after surgical resection for carcinoma of the lung. The overall five-year survival rate for the empyema group of 18 patients was 50 per cent, compared to an 18 per cent five-year survival rate in a control group consisting of a random 34-patient sample of resected cases at this institution. On further analysis, the beneficial effect of intrapleural infection was found principally in patients with tumor limited to the lung and its draining regional lymph nodes. Six of seven patients in this group survived for five years.