[Surgical treatment of lung cancer patients with brain metastases]

The authors present an experience with diagnosing and treatment of 16 patients suffering from lung cancer with solitary metastasis into the brain. The examination performed has shown that in 7 out of 16 patients the surgical treatment was found to be not expedient. This solution was based on the detection of an extensive spread of lung cancer: multiple metastasis outside the thoracic cavity and the brain or inside the brain, and in one case--due to a considerable reduction of indices of the functional and reserve capacities of respiration and blood circulation. Single-step operations were carried out in 9 patients with lung cancer with a solitary metastasis into the brain (resection of the lung with an ablation of the brain metastasis). Out of the 9 patients operated on 6 patients survived for as long as 1.5 to 2 years, one patient lived longer than 4 years. Two other patients operated upon in June 2003 and March 2004 are still alive and feel much better. Satisfactory results of treatment of these patients show such methods to be expedient.