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Ann Thorac Surg 2006;82:254-260
© 2006 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Original article: General thoracic

Prediction of Prognosis and Surgical Indications for Pulmonary Metastasectomy From Colorectal Cancer

^a Department of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
^b Department of Diagnostic Pathology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan

Accepted for publication February 9, 2006.

^_* Address correspondence to Dr Fujisawa, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba 260-8670, Japan (Email: fujisawat{at}faculty.chiba-u.jp).

	Abstract

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BACKGROUND: Treatment of pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer by excision has increased rapidly, but reports on indications and prognostic factors are inconsistent. We sought to identify poor prognostic factors preoperatively and to retrospectively evaluate preoperative clinical indications for surgery.

METHODS: A total of 75 patients with colorectal cancer had pulmonary metastases excised from 1986 to 2003. Tumor size, number, laterality, hilar or mediastinal lymphadenopathy, and carcinoembryonic antigen level were possible risk factors for metastatic tumors, with primary site of colorectal tumor, disease-free interval, and hepatectomy for liver metastasis possible risk factors for primary tumors. Prognostic factors in univariate and multivariate analyses also included age and sex.

RESULTS: Five-year survival rates were 41.3% after pulmonary excision and 73.1% after primary colorectal resection. Three factors identified as significant by univariate log-rank test for overall survival after pulmonary resection were carcinoembryonic antigen (p < 0.0001), tumor laterality (p = 0.0205), and number of pulmonary metastases (p = 0.0028). Multivariate analysis found that carcinoembryonic antigen, tumor number, tumor size, and patient's age were also independent prognostic factors. In contrast, carcinoembryonic antigen, number of metastases, and disease-free interval predicted prognosis after primary colorectal resection. Prior hepatectomy for metastases did not influence prognosis after pulmonary metastasectomy.

CONCLUSIONS: Elevated carcinoembryonic antigen level and multiple metastases are preoperative predictors of poor prognosis after resection of pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer. Survival rate is sufficient to justify pulmonary metastasectomy if there is no local or distant metastatic lesion other than in the liver; if needed, sequential pulmonary and hepatic metastasectomy can be performed.

	Introduction

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Colorectal cancer and primary lung cancer are among the most common malignancies in industrialized countries [1, 2]. The typical pattern of lung metastasis from colorectal cancer is single or multiple nodules rather than miliary tumors or lymphangitis carcinomatosa. No effective chemotherapy regimen has been found for metastatic disease. Hence, a surgical procedure to eliminate pulmonary metastases is generally accepted as the only potentially curative treatment. In favor of surgery is the recent trend toward earlier detection of pulmonary metastases as small peripheral densities with the increasingly common use of screening with spiral or high-resolution computed tomography (CT). The number of possibly resectable cases has increased in the last 20 years as physicians who monitor patients after primary surgery have paid much more attention to the possibility of identifying operable cases of metastatic disease. In 1996, we released a report with 29 cases of pulmonary metastasectomy from colorectal cancer [3]. Since then, the number of pulmonary metastasectomy procedures for appropriate patients has increased rapidly, and indications and prognosis factors for excision have been reviewed.

We have recently encountered some retrospective studies of prognostic factors for lung metastasectomy from colorectal cancer using univariate and multivariate evaluation [4–11]. However, the results are not entirely consistent with each other, suggesting the need to evaluate more cases from many facilities to establish surgical indications for these patients. We selected 10 factors that appear to significantly influence prognosis for metastasectomy of lung tumors from colorectal cancer. These include age, sex, lung tumor size, number, laterality, hilar or mediastinal lymphadenopathy, and preoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level for metastatic tumors; and primary site of colorectal cancer, disease-free interval, and hepatectomy for liver metastasis for primary tumors.

The present retrospective study is an attempt to clarify prognostic factors that can be defined preoperatively and relate them to long-term survival in patients who have undergone pulmonary metastasectomy from colorectal cancer. We evaluate appropriateness of surgical indications and disadvantages for patients with metastatic lung tumors with homogeneous data from a single general thoracic surgery unit.

	Material and Methods

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Patients
A total of 75 patients with primary colorectal cancer, including 38 colon cancers and 37 rectal cancers, had pulmonary metastases excised from 1986 to 2003 at the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Chiba University Hospital (Chiba, Japan); patients were followed up through the end of 2004. Our criteria for resection of pulmonary metastases from colorectal carcinoma included unilateral or bilateral excisable lung lesions per preoperative chest radiography, no local recurrence of primary lesions, and no extrapulmonary lesions with the exception of associated prior or simultaneous resectable hepatic metastases. This study includes 29 cases reported previously [3].

Of the 75 patients with colorectal cancer, 46 were women and 29 were men, with an age range of 40 to 82 years (mean age with standard deviation, 60.4 ± 8.8 years). The advanced age group was defined as those patients 60 years of age or older. Preoperative serum concentration of CEA was measured by microparticle enzyme immunoassay (normal upper limit, 5 ng/mL). We decided on surgical procedure according to pulmonary tumor location, size (mean with standard deviation, 2.9 ± 1.6 cm), and number (single, 53 cases; double, 11 cases; triple, 2 cases; more than 3, 9 cases), performing 40 lobectomies, 29 wedge resections, 5 segmentectomies, and 1 pneumonectomy without sternotomy. Because metastatic nodules prefer to grow in the posterior segments, median sternotomy is not appropriate to check the posterior segment, pleural dissemination, and effusion. Lymph node sampling of hilar or mediastinal nodes was performed in 44 patients. The intervals between the liver resection and the lung resection were within 1 year for 9 cases and more than 1 year for 11 cases.

Follow-up was every 2 to 3 months for the first year after surgery, then every 3 to 6 months for 2 to 5 additional years, and once a year thereafter. Additional follow-up and survival data were determined by telephone or postal contact with the patient. When distant or local disease recurrence developed, any treatment was permitted. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the ethics committee for human studies at the Graduate School of Medicine in Chiba University on September 30, 2005. Written informed consent was not obtained or required from all subjects because they are not identified in this retrospective study.

Survival Rate and Statistical Analysis
The end point was overall survival calculated as the interval between date of primary or pulmonary surgery and death. Cause of death was confirmed by telephone contact with the doctor who followed the patient. Overall survival was calculated by the Kaplan–Meier method [12]. The difference between survival curves was analyzed using the log-rank test for univariate analyses. Clinical prognostic factors examined in this study included age, sex, preoperative CEA level, tumor laterality, tumor number, tumor size, preoperative lymphadenopathy, primary site of colorectal cancer, disease-free interval, and hepatectomy for liver metastasis. A hilar or mediastinal lymph node size of 1.0 cm or more on the short axis measured with CT was defined as positive for lymphadenopathy preoperatively. Multivariate analysis was calculated in a forward stepwise procedure according to the Cox proportional hazards model [13] using the SPSS statistical package (SPSS version 12.0 for Windows, SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL). A 0.10 level of probability was the significance level used for adding or deleting a covariable from the model. Analysis was regarded as statistically significant at a probability value less than 0.05.

	Results

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Survival and Univariate Analysis
Overall 5-year and 10-year survival rates were 41.3% and 35.2% from date of pulmonary excision, respectively. Overall 5- and 10-year survival rates were 73.1% and 40.3% from date of primary colorectal resection, respectively (Fig 1). For overall survival after pulmonary resection, three prognostic factors were determined as significant by univariate p value: CEA, p < 0.0001 (Fig 2); tumor laterality, p = 0.0205; and number of pulmonary metastases, p = 0.0028; log-rank test (Table 1). For overall survival after primary colorectal resection, CEA (p = 0.0004; Fig 2), tumor laterality (p = 0.0172), number of pulmonary metastases (p = 0.0019), hilar or mediastinal lymphadenopathy (p = 0.0125), primary site (p = 0.0206), and disease-free interval (p < 0.0001) each displayed a significant difference (Table 1).

View larger version (10K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig 1. Overall survival curves for patients (n = 75) with pulmonary metastasis from colorectal cancer. (A) Overall 5- and 10-year survival rates were 41.3% and 35.2%, respectively, after resection of pulmonary metastases. (B) Overall 5- and 10-year survival rates were 73.1% and 40.3%, respectively, after initial colorectal resection.

View larger version (13K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig 2. Survival curves according to serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) concentration. (A) The 5- and 10-year survival rates after pulmonary resection were 11.2% and no survivors, respectively, for patients with elevated CEA (thin line); rates were 65.0% and 59.6%, respectively, for patients without elevation (thick line). (B) The 5- and 10-year survival rates after primary resection were 61.1% and 14.9%, respectively, for patients with elevated CEA (thin line); rates were 81.5% and 65.0%, respectively, for patients without elevation (thick line).

View larger version (14K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig 3. Survival curves according to site of primary tumor. (A) The 5- and 10-year survival rates after pulmonary resection were 52.2% and 47.4%, respectively, for patients with primary tumor in the colon (thin line); rates were 29.5% and no survivors, respectively, for patients with primary tumor in the rectum (thick line). (B) The 5- and 10-year survival rates after primary resection were 84.4% and 54.5%, respectively, for patients with primary colon tumors (thin line); rates were 61.2% and 23.6%, respectively, for patients with primary tumors in the rectum (thick line).

View larger version (12K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig 4. Survival curves according to prior hepatectomy for hepatic metastasis. (A) The 5- and 10-year survival rates after pulmonary resection were 31.6% and 31.6%, respectively, for patients who underwent resection of hepatic metastases (thick line); rates were 44.0% and 36.7%, respectively, for patients who did not undergo such surgery (thin line). (B) The 5- and 10-year survival rates after pulmonary resection were 66.6% and 31.7%, respectively, for patients who underwent resection of hepatic metastases (thick line); rates were 75.4% and 43.3%, respectively, for patients who did not undergo such surgery (thin line).

	Comment

Top Abstract Introduction Material and Methods Results Comment References

In this study, we retrospectively investigated survival and clinical characteristics in patients who underwent resection of pulmonary metastases at our institution and then evaluated the statistical significance of various prognostic factors. We demonstrated some noteworthy results. First, overall 5-year survival rates were 41.3% from pulmonary excision and 73.1% from primary colorectal resection. Second, CEA level, tumor size, tumor number, and patient age were found to be significant independent prognostic factors with multivariate analysis after pulmonary excision. Carcinoembryonic antigen level, tumor number, and disease-free interval were significant for survival after primary colorectal resection.

In 1996, we reported on 29 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent surgical excision of pulmonary lung tumors [3]; after that period, reported cases accumulated rapidly. More than 100 cases are currently found in the literature. The current study is noteworthy because it evaluates the surgical process with a consistent protocol at one facility. Most of these studies are retrospective analyses involving many institutions, and there are differences in surgical indications and procedure for each facility [9, 14, 15]. The reported 5-year survival rates of this surgery were 24% to 63%, and most were around 40% [4–11, 15–22]. Our criteria for resection of pulmonary metastases from colorectal carcinoma included unilateral or bilateral excisable lung lesions per preoperative chest radiography, no local recurrence of primary lesions, and no extrapulmonary lesions with the exception of associated prior or simultaneous resectable hepatic metastases. These criteria are quite acceptable for surgery of metastatic pulmonary nodules from colorectal cancer based on total prognosis and subjected prognosis, the anatomy, and the literature.

Human CEA, originally described as a tumor-specific antigen, is a member of the CEA-related cell adhesion molecule family, which is expressed on the apical surface of colon epithelial cells. Carcinoembryonic antigen expression is associated with progression of colorectal cancers and is maintained in more than 95% of colorectal carcinomas and their metastases, making this glycoprotein the most widely used human tumor marker [23]. In this series, data demonstrated that prethoracotomy serum CEA was one of the most significant prognostic factors in both univariate and multivariate analyses for survival after resection of metastatic lung tumors; this is consistent with findings by others [5, 6, 10, 11, 15–18], including our previous report [3]. Elevated serum CEA is the only prognostic factor that has been confirmed to be related to biologic features of primary colorectal cancer. We assume that CEA could be one of the most important factors related to metastasis of colorectal cancer because elevated expression of CEA is associated with poorer prognosis not only with primary colorectal cancer but also with metastatic lung tumors. The mechanism underlying metastasis of colorectal cancer remains obscure in patients with elevated levels of CEA; clinicians should monitor patients for an increase in CEA level after excision of metastatic lung tumors.

Tumor size [3, 4, 19, 24], tumor number [5, 7, 8, 10, 14, 16, 17, 19–22, 24], and lymph node metastasis represent the extent of metastatic lung disease as prognostic factors similar to those included in the TNM classification of primary lung cancer. It is controversial whether all of those factors are independent prognostic factors as they are for primary lung cancer. Our experience indicates that patients with lymph node metastasis in the hilum or mediastinum have poor prognoses. Some authors have also reported lymph node metastasis to be an independent predictor of poor prognosis after surgical excision of pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer [5, 7, 9, 18, 21]. We determined that a factor of preoperative lymphadenopathy is not necessarily an independent prognostic factor in this series, but 9 patients with pathologic lymph node metastasis of 44 patients who underwent lymph node dissection showed poorer prognosis than the other patients (data not shown). However, no surgeon believes that systematic lymph node dissection as part of surgery for metastatic lung tumors improves prognosis; hence, we perform a wedge resection for a small peripheral metastasis without inclusion of lymph node dissection. Lymph node metastases to hilum or mediastinum should be considered distant metastases rather than independent nodal factors as in primary lung cancer.

Venous drainage of the colon and rectum is through the portal vein for the entire colon and the proximal third of the rectum, with drainage through systemic veins for the remaining two thirds of the rectum. The liver is regarded as the first filter of colorectal cancer at time of metastasis; therefore, we justified sequential metastasectomy of lung tumors from colorectal cancer even if liver metastasis had also occurred. We clarified with 20 patients in this study that prior hepatectomy for colorectal metastases does not influence prognosis after resection of lung metastases, a finding that is substantially consistent with other related reports [14, 15, 17, 20, 22, 25]. Moreover, based on venous drainage patterns, we anticipated some difference in prognosis between cases originating in the colon and those originating in the rectum. We could not show any difference in prognosis on the basis of primary tumor site. This result might be limited by the small number of cases.

Cases of pulmonary metastasectomy with eradication of the primary tumor and absence or effective treatment of metastases in other organs are registered in the International Registry of Lung Metastases [26]. However, no surgeon will operate with multiple metastases in both liver and lung simultaneously if the primary lesion is in the breast. Only colorectal cancer could become an acceptable candidate for both liver and lung metastasectomy because of venous drainage of the colon and rectum.

In conclusion, there are no reports on total survival time from first surgery for colorectal cancer. We consider the 5-year survival rates found at our institution (41.3% for survival after pulmonary excision and 73.1% for survival after primary colorectal resection) to be within the permissible range. Prior hepatectomy for metastases from colorectal cancer is not a contraindication for lung metastasectomy. Elevated CEA level and tumor number are the most significant prognostic factors for overall survival after resection of lung metastases from colorectal cancer. Surgery for pulmonary metastasis is recommended if there is no local recurrence and no distant metastasis except for liver. Sequential metastasectomy for liver and lung should be permitted.

	References

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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Iizasa, T. Articles by Fujisawa, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Iizasa, T. Articles by Fujisawa, T. Related Collections Lung - other