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Thoracic Surgery Director:YOSHIKAWA, Toyofumi (Professor)

Excellent achievements in aggressive treatments for advanced disease and minimally invasive surgery for early-stage malignancy

Our department specializes in surgical treatment of thoracic diseases such as malignant tumors (e.g. lung cancer, thymoma, malignant pleural mesothelioma, etc.), benign tumors and benign diseases (e.g. spontaneous pneumothorax, inflammatory lung diseases, etc.).


Medical Care System

Our department is consisted with fourteen full-time doctors including certified seven thoracic surgeons. We accept out patients for the first consultation every day. Treatment plans for the patient are discussed and determined at the joint conference of the departments of Thoracic Surgery, Respirology, and Radiology.

Target Diseases

Main target diseases are thoracic malignant tumors such as primary lung cancer, metastatic lung tumor, thymoma and malignant pleural mesothelioma. Non-neoplastic benign diseases such as myasthenia gravis requiring thymectomy, inflammatory lung diseases, empyema, pneumothorax, chest injury, and congenital pulmonary malformation are also our target diseases. Chronic respiratory failure requiring lung transplantation.

Strong Fields

We have safely and successfully performed surgical treatment of patient with lung cancer, thymoma and malignant pleural mesothelioma, even in the locally advanced state. Patients with severe comorbidities (e.g. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, diabetes, dialysis, etc.) which require specialized perioperative management are also acceptable for surgical treatment in our department.

Clinical Results

Total number of the patients with surgical treatment at our departments in 2022 was 461, which were 289 for lung cancer, 35 for mediastinal tumor, 53 for metastatic lung tumor, 7 for malignant pleural mesothelioma, 77 for other diseases. Robot assisted thoracic surgery (RATS) was performed in 161 patients. The 5-year survival in all resected lung cancer from 2005 to 2016 (n=2,478) was 75.5%. The 5-year survival rates according to pathological stage were 88% for ⅠA, 79% for Ⅰ B, 58% for ⅡA, 65% for ⅡB, 57% for ⅢA, respectively.

Specialized Outpatient Clinic

Our department is characterized by extensive experiences in treatment of lung cancer, advanced invasive thymoma and malignant pleural mesothelioma. We are always acceptable for patients seeking second opinion. We also accept consultations for patients who are eligible for lung transplantation.

Advanced Medicine and Research

We conduct various basic research and clinical studies to establish new evidences. We have been culturing thymoma and malignant pleural mesothelioma and tried to establish the cell lines, in order to clarify their oncological characteristics. We conduct research on clinical application of surgical simulation. In addition, we have been conducting multi-institutional studies of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced lung cancer and limited surgery for early lung cancer. We have also been vigorously applying robot assisted thoracic surgery (RATS), for lung cancer and thymoma. In March 2023, Nagoya University Hospital became one of the lung transplant centers in Japan.