Health care systems worldwide are commonly burdened with COPD and lung cancer and
subsequently much has been studied and learnt of the interdependence between these two clinical
entities. Lung cancer surgical treatment options in patients with severe COPD remain a clinical
challenge for the multidisciplinary team. Appropriate patient selection and prediction of
postoperative pulmonary complications aid in surgical decision making and informed patient
consent. In this review, we present an overview of surgical selection tools (lung function parameters,
risk stratification for postoperative pulmonary complications) and lung cancer clinical outcomes
(recurrence, survival) in patients with COPD undergoing lung cancer surgery.
Smoking and timing of cessation on postoperative pulmonary complications after curative-intent lung cancer surgery
