Abstract
Surgery may be curative in some patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). We analyzed the role of lung metastatectomy in this population.
In this retrospective cohort study, cases were defined as mCRC patients with lung metastases (LM's) who underwent metastatectomy. Controls had LM's but did not undergo resection.
There were 28 cases and 46 controls. The median overall survival (OS) was 53 months among the cases and 26.3 months for the controls. The cases were more likely to have 1 or 2 lung metastases, unilateral versus bilateral LM's, metachronous versus synchronous presentation of LM's and more likely to have a carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level less than 10 ng/ml at diagnosis. The interval from diagnosis to the development of lung metastases was significantly longer in cases versus controls (22.9 versus 8.5 months).
Patients selected using these criteria may have prolonged survival with therapy that includes lung metastatectomy.
