Applicability of pulmonary lobectomy in treating metastatic lung tumors

Purpose: Although metastases to the lung from other organs are usually removed with limited lung resections (e.g., wedge resections or segmentectomies), pulmonary lobectomies are often required to remove whole pulmonary tumors. This study investigated the clinical applicability of pulmonary lobectomies to treat metastatic lung tumors. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records of 143 consecutive patients with metastatic tumors in the lung who underwent surgery in our department, including data sets for 100 patients treated for their frst metastatic lung tumors. Results: Of the 100 patients, 23 received pulmonary lobectomies, 69 received wedge resections and eight received segmentectomies. Patients in the lobectomy group were more likely to be younger, have larger and/or multiple tumors, and to have tumors of musculo-skeletal origin (sarcomas) than those who underwent segmentectomies or wedge resections (the limited resection group). The two groups did not significantly differ in survival (3-year survival rate; lobectomy vs limited resection: 75.2% vs 80.4%, P = 0.15), or post-operative morbidity, although the only post-operative morbidity was associated with post-operative prognosis in the lobectomy group. Conclusions: Pulmonary lobectomy is a safe and applicable surgical procedure for meta-static lung tumors when long survival is expected after the tumor resection.