Prognostic factors in pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer

Surgery represents the first-choice treatment to manage pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer when the primary tumor has been controlled and there is no evidence of metastatic spreading to any other organ. In our experience on 13 patients, we obtained a survival at 5 years of 23%. The average number of metastases resected was 2.9. The increase of carcinoembryonic antigen was the first clinical sign in 10 cases (76.9%, higher or equal to 5 ng/ml) that led to its discovery. The surgical technique most frequently used was wedge resection and/or atypical segmentectomy. Intraoperative mortality was zero and morbidity low (15.3%).