Current treatment paradigms of superior sulcus tumours

Pancoast or superior pulmonary sulcus tumours are a rare subset of non-small-cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs) which occur with an incidence of less than 5% of all lung cancers. Today, induction chemoradiation followed by surgical resection has become the established standard treatment approach for patients with sulcus superior tumours in the absence of other contraindications. This review focusses on the historical change of the treatment strategy, the evolution of surgical and multimodality management of this disease and the most recent published clinical outcome data of patients suffering from superior pulmonary sulcus carcinoma. (C) 2009 European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.