SURGICAL TREATMENT OF METASTATIC LUNG TUMORS

From July 1948 through August 1977, thirty-two cases of metastatic lung tumors had been operated upon at the Department of Thoracic Surgery in our hospital.One patient had pulmonary resections twice and another patient had pulmonary resections thrice for recurrences. Thus, 85 operations were performed in these 32 patients. The total hospital mortality was 3%(1 patient).All patients were followed up to April 1978. The over-all one-year survival rate was 76.6%; three-year survival rate 40.0% and five-year survival rate 30.4%. Five patients have been living and well for 203/4 years, 191/2 years, 185/6 years, 133/4 years and 121/6 years respectively.Choriooaroinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma of cervix, adenocarcinoma of colon or kidney and sarcomas of lower limbs were the common primary malignaocies. The pulmonary metastatic lesions were single in 28 cases. The other four patients had multiple pulmonary lesions but all confined to one lung.Twenty-six patients had their primary tumors eradicated or controlled before the appearance of pulmonary metastasis, while in six patients, the pulmonary metastases were found before radical operation of the primary tumor.Factors influencing long-term survival were discussed. These included the size of the metastatio lesions, the period between eradication of primary tumor and the appearance of pulmonary metastasis, and the pathology of the lesions.All patients except one received lobeotomies, segmental or wedge resection of the metastatic lesions. The one exception was a case of multiple metastases, for whom a pneumoneotomy was done.