Prognostic indicators in patients with pulmonary metastases

Abstract

Pulmonary metastases from different primary neoplasms have different biological characteristics which may correlate with patient survival. Objective criteria to reliably select or exclude patients who would benefit from resection of these metastases are not available; however, various prognostic indicators have been studied for their correlation with postresection survival. Prognostic indicators differ among various tumor histologies. Prognostic indicators identified preoperatively which may influence post‐resection survival include age, sex, histology and location of the primary tumor, tumor doubling time, disease free interval, the number of nodules on preoperative roentgenographic studies, and the number of metastases resected. Following surgery, resectability, and the number of metastases resected may predict expected survival for patients meeting certain criteria. No single criterion should be used to exclude patients from surgery as resection will provide numerous patients with significant postresection survival.