The surgical management of multiple lung metastases

From 1970 to June, 1976, 56 patients who had multiple metastatic tumors of the lung were treated by lung resection. Most of the bilateral lung lesions were removed through a median sternotomy so as to avoid staged bilateral thoracotomy. The surgical mortality was 1.8%. A total of 26 patients are alive at 7 to 69 months (estimated median survival, 20.7 months). Patients with tumor doubling time of less than 40 days had lower survival results (median, 9.5 months), compared to patients with tumor doubling time of more than 40 days (median not yet reached). The type of primary tumor, tumor-free interval, number of lesions removed, and presence of unilateral as opposed to bilateral lung metastases did not seem to affect the therapeutic results.