[Surgical treatment for primary non-small cell lung cancer with synchronous brain metastases]

The brain is one of the most common sites of metastasis from lung cancer. The strategies of treatment for non-small cell lung cancer patient with synchronous brain metastases (stage IV) is controversial. We evaluate retrospectively the effectiveness of surgical treatment for these patients. Forty patients were divided into 3 groups on the basis of surgical treatment, group A of patients received both lung and brain resection, group B of patients received lung resection plus gamma knife therapy, group C of patients received brain resection. Median survival from the date of diagnosis of brain metastasis was as follows: group A 331 days, group B 151 days and group C 92 days. Univariate analysis revealed that adenocarcinoma histology and serum LDH significantly affected survival. Multivariate analysis found that only adeocarcinoma histology also affected the survival. It is concluded that surgical treatment may acceptable in selected group of non-small cell lung cancer patients with synchronous brain metastases.