[Prognostic factors of resected pulmonary metastases of osteogenic sarcoma]

From December 1979 to December 1994, 22 patients with osteogenic sarcoma underwent a total of 34 thoracotomies for resection of pulmonary metastases in our department. We did a retrospective study to identify prognostic factors. The tumor doubling time (TDT) calculated for 21 patients before the first (if multiple) resection was not correlated with days of survival after resection of the primary tumor, nor was it correlated with days of survival after the first (if multiple) resection of the pulmonary metastatic tumors. Of the nine patients who underwent at least two thoracotomies, the TDT calculated from X-ray films taken before the second (or later) thoracotomy was significantly shorter than the TDT calculated before the preceding thoracotomy (p < 0.05). The disease-free interval (DFI) after resection of the primary tumor was correlated with the days of survival after that resection (p < 0.001) and also with survival after resection of the pulmonary metastatic tumors (p < 0.01). This DFI of patients who survived at least 2 years from the date of the resection of the primary tumor was significantly longer than in patients who survived less than 2 years from that date (p < 0.05). The most significant prognostic factor was this DFI. The cumulative survival rate was 42.4% at three years and 33.9% at five years, with an operative mortality of 0%.