Table 2 Trials comparing different surgical approaches for lung cancer.

Study and year	Subjects	Intervention	Control	Number randomised	Outcomes
Yamaguchi University, Japan (1993–4)24	Clinical stage IA NSCLC, no mediastinoscopy	Video‐assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy	Thoracotomy and conventional lobectomy	100	Overall 5 year survival
Lung Cancer Study Group Trial, North America (1982–8)22	T1N0M0 peripheral NSCLC fit for lobectomy	Limited resection (wedge resection or segmentectomy, i.e. less than lobectomy)	Conventional lobectomy	276	Overall 5 year survival, local recurrence rate, death with cancer rate, pulmonary function
University of Munich and Central Hospital, Gauting, Germany (1989–91)13	Resectable NSCLC (stages I–IIIA)	Thoracotomy, surgical resection, complete mediastinal lymph node dissection	Thoracotomy, surgical resection, systematic sampling of mediastinal lymph nodes	201	Overall and progression free survival (median follow up 47 months)
Yamaguchi University, Japan (1985–92)14	Peripheral NSCLC <2 cm diameter, mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes <1 cm on CT (no mediastinoscopy)	Thoracotomy, surgical resection, complete mediastinal lymph node dissection	Thoracotomy, surgical resection, systematic sampling of mediastinal lymph nodes	115	Overall 5 year survival
Sun Yat‐Sen University of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, China (1989–95)15	Pathologically confirmed NSCLC, clinical stages I–IIIA, age <71 years	Thoracotomy, surgical resection, complete mediastinal lymph node dissection	Thoracotomy, surgical resection, systematic sampling of mediastinal lymph nodes	532	Overall 5 year survival