Surgery for small cell lung cancer in the modern era: opportunities and challenges

This issue of the Journal of Thoracic Diseases includes two well-written perspective pieces on our recent examination of surgery for early and locoregionally advanced small cell lung cancer (SCLC) (1,2). Our study found that surgical resection was associated with longer survival despite stage-specific propensity matching that accounted for patient, tumor and hospital characteristics (3). The two editorials provide contrasting views on our results, and both make interesting observations and criticisms. The controversy around the use of surgery in early and locoregionally advanced SCLC has little chance of being resolved in the near future, although there are purportedly ongoing randomized clinical trials in Germany and Asia which may answer many of the questions that exist about the role of surgery today (4)