Surgical outcomes of pulmonary metastases from esophageal carcinoma diagnosed by both pathological and clinical criteria

PURPOSE

This investigation was performed to examine the surgical outcomes of pulmonary metastases from esophageal carcinoma (EC) diagnosed by both pathological and clinical criteria.

METHODS

Based on the pathological criteria, we identified 22 patients who had undergone pulmonary metastasectomy for EC between 1997 and 2011. Thehistological type of EC was squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in all patients. After specific clinical criteria were applied, seven patients suspected of having primary lung SCC were excluded. The surgical outcomes of the remaining 15 patients were reviewed. The overall survival (OS) was calculated as the period from pulmonary resection until death or the date of the last follow-up.

RESULTS

The 1-, 3- and 4-year OS rates of the 15 patients were 93, 44 and 0% respectively, with a median OS of 32 months. A larger diameter of the pulmonary metastasis was marginally associated with a poorer OS (p = 0.087); however, none of the parameters were significant prognostic factors.

CONCLUSIONS

The median OS of patients who underwent surgical resection for pulmonary metastases from EC was comparable to that in previous reports, even after excluding patients clinically suspected of having a second primary lung SCC. The poor long-term survival might indicate that our clinical criteria are helpful in selecting true metastatic patients, considering the aggressive clinical course of metastatic EC.