Pulmonary resections for metastatic lesions.

Abstract

THE RENEWED interest in the controversial subject of excision of pulmonary metastatic lesions has prompted us to report nine additional cases and to give our experience in selecting and handling them. The hopelessness in the prognosis for patients in whom pulmonary metastatic lesions are found, even though the primary extrapulmonary malignant growth has been totally removed, has brought about many attempts at surgical removal of the metastatic lesion or lesions and some successes. We shall try to demonstrate that the low mortality and the increased safety of pulmonary resection as practiced today justify a more radical approach to occasional surgical resection of metastatic malignant tissue. There have been previous case reports by others, and reviews by Seiler, Clagett and McDonald¹and by Eschappase²have recently been published. The presence of a lung lesion either as a peripheral parenchymal mass or as evidenced by involvement of a major bronchus,