Pulmonary Metastasectomy for Head and Neck Cancer: Institutional Experience in the Context of Published Surgical...

Despite its uncommon occurrence, pulmonary metastasis from head and neck cancer has significant prognostic implications. Although pulmonary metastasectomy is a potential treatment option for select patients, its impact on patient survival remains controversial. This study aimed to describe our institutional experience with pulmonary metastasectomy for head and neck cancer and to contextualize the findings within previously published surgical series. We conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 15 patients with head and neck cancer who underwent pulmonary metastasectomy at our institution. Clinicopathological characteristics, disease-free interval, tumor size, surgical procedures, and postoperative outcomes were descriptively analyzed. The median overall survival time after pulmonary metastasectomy was 36 months. Complete resection was achieved in all patients. Patients with a longer disease-free interval tended to show more favorable survival outcomes, whereas tumor size did not demonstrate a clear association with prognosis in this cohort. Postoperative adjuvant therapy was administered in 60.0% of patients. Pulmonary metastasectomy may be a treatment option for carefully selected patients with head and neck cancer. A longer disease-free interval appears to be an important consideration for patient selection, consistent with previous reports, while tumor size alone may not be sufficient to predict outcomes. Given the retrospective design and small sample size, further multicenter studies are warranted to clarify the role of pulmonary metastasectomy in this setting.