Objectives: To capture an accurate contemporary description of the practice of pulmonary metastasectomy for colorectal carcinoma in one national healthcare system.
Design: A national registry set up in Spain by Grupo Español de Cirugía Metástasis Pulmonares de Carcinoma Colo-Rectal (GECMP-CCR).
Setting: 32 Spanish thoracic units.
Participants: All patients with one or more histologically proven lung metastasis removed by surgery between March 2008 and February 2010.
Interventions: Pulmonary metastasectomy for one or more pulmonary nodules proven to be metastatic colorectal carcinoma.
Primary and secondary outcome measures: The age and sex of the patients having this surgery were recorded with the number of metastases removed, the interval between the primary colorectal cancer operation and the pulmonary metastasectomy, and the carcinoembryonic antigen level. Also recorded were the practices with respect to mediastinal lymphadenopathy and coexisting liver metastases.
Results: Data were available on 543 patients from 32 units (6-43/unit). They were aged 32-88 (mean 65) years, and 65% were men. In 55% of patients, there was a solitary metastasis. The median interval between the primary cancer resection and metastasectomy was 28 months and the serum carcinoembryonic antigen was low/normal in the majority. Liver metastatic disease was present in 29% of patients at some point prior to pulmonary metastasectomy. Mediastinal lymphadenectomy varied from 9% to 100% of patients.
Conclusions: The data represent a prospective comprehensive national data collection on pulmonary metastasectomy. The practice is more conservative than the impression gained when members of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons were surveyed in 2006/2007 but is more inclusive than would be recommended on the basis of recent outcome analyses. Further analyses on the morbidity associated with this surgery and the correlation between imaging studies and pathological findings are being published separately by GECMP-CCR.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Metastasis.