PULMONARY RESECTION FOR METASTATIC COLORECTAL-CANCER - EXPERIENCES WITH 159 PATIENTS

We reviewed the clinical courses of 159 patients between February 1967 and May 1995 for the purpose of examining the survival of patients wh o had pulmonary resection for metastatic colorectal cancer. The cumula tive survivals at 5 years and 10 years were 40,5% and 27.7%, respectiv ely, Fifteen patients (10%) were alive more than 10 years after the th oracotomy without any evidence of recurrence, The cumulative survival at 5 years for 39 patients who had hepatic metastases before thoracoto my was 33%, There was a statistically significant difference in surviv al between patients with extrapulmonary metastases and those with only intrapulmonary metastases before thoracotomy, The number of pulmonary metastases and the presence of hilar or mediastinal lymph node metast ases affected postthoracotomy survival, There was no significant diffe rence in survival on the basis of sex, age, location of the primary ca ncer, size of the pulmonary tumors, mode of operation, or disease-free interval, Surgical treatment for pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer in selected patients, even those who had hepatic metastases be fore thoracotomy, might improve prognosis.