Choosing an underfocused but highly relevant issue is a recipe for writing a remarkable article. D'Jouno and his colleagues accomplished their task while avoiding the temptation of recycling received wisdom in their article [1]. For the time being, surgery in early non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and surgery-assisted oncological treatment in locally advanced NSCLC offer the best chances for cure [2]. The less- than-modest improvement in resectability rates witnessed presently makes operability ratio enhancement a key element in achieving better survivals. Consequently, more and more functionally borderline patients, who are prone to postoperative complications among which respiratory failure (RF) is the most deadly one, are offered lung resections. While RF is the primary cause of complication and in-hospital death [3] after lung cancer surgery, the cascade of events leading to the dreaded complication has more than one potential origin. Infective RF (iRF), where the first domino fall is usually a bacterial attack, presents a special subset within the gas-exchange catastrophes. It seems to be plausible to identify and annihilate the potential killers prior to lung resection.
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