Operative treatment for pulmonary metastatic tumors

Abstract

During the past 30 years, 138 patients with pulmonary metastatic tumors were treated surgically. Their primary lesions were mainly osteosarcoma (26 cases), rectal cancer (25 cases), renal cell carcinoma (15 cases), uterine cancer (11 cases) and breast cancer (8 cases). Sixty-one patients had a solitary metastasis, 23 had unilateral multifocal and 54 had bilateral multifocal metastases. Pneumonectomy was performed in 12 cases, lobectomy in 42, partial resection or segmentectomy in 81 and open thoracotomy in 3. The five-year survival rates were 46.3% in the solitary lesion group, 30.3% in the unilateral multifocal and 16.7% in the bilateral multifocal group. The five-year survival rates were in 10.9% for osteosarcoma, 33% for colo-rectal cancer, 45% for uterine cancer and 0% for breast cancer. Of the 88 patients operated more than 5 years before the survey, 26 survived for more than 5 years, and 13 of them survived for more than 10 years. 10 of these had a solitary pulmonary metastasis and 3 had unilateral multiple metastases.These results indicate that in selected patients with pulmonary metastatic tumors surgery can provide prolonged survival.