Video-assisted thoracic surgery segmentectomy: the future of surgery for lung cancer?

Pulmonary segmentectomy has become a good option for small peripheral non-small cell lung cancers and is currently being evaluated in a large North American randomized study, CALGB-140503 (Cancer and Leukemia Group B-140503). Using a video-assisted thoracic surgical approach to segmentectomy decreases the morbidity and hastens the recovery of patients having this operation relative to a thoracotomy. This technique can be easily learned by surgeons who use video-assisted thoracic surgery to perform other operations.