Recent decades have witnessed a progressive aging of the population and a resulting increase in the numbers of elderly patients seeking health care. Since age and pneumonectomy are independent predictors of perioperative morbidity and mortality, such surgery is not recommended for octogenarian patients. We report the experience of 6 such patients who underwent pneumonectomy for squamous cell carcinoma in 5 cases and a typical carcinoid tumor in the sixth. There was no perioperative mortality; morbidity and survival rates were acceptable.