Prognostic Factor and Survival of Patients with Colorectal Cancer after Resection of Pulmonary Metastase

5-year survival rate of patients undergoing surgical resection of pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer have been reported variable. Nowadays, there is not a standard guide for selecting patients for lung metastases resection. This study aimed to identify prognostic factors determining overall survival rate of patients after resection of lung metastases in colorectal cancer. In this cross-sectional study, all the patients underwent resection of lung metastases resulting from colorectal cancer in Alzahra hospital, Isfahan in a ten year period were assessed. Information about age, sex, number of pulmonary metastases, type of metastatectomy, location of surgery, lymph node involvement and its location, size of metastases during surgery, postoperative mortality, survival, history of previous induced liver metastatectomy, pathological findings, and interval of surgery to death were gathered by a checklist referring to the patient records, telephone records, and laboratory and pathological records. The data were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier and Log-rank tests. In this study, 26 patients with a mean age of 56.00 ± 15.26 years were enrolled. 53.8 percent were men and the rest were women. Number of metastases was between two and three. No deaths due to surgery (within 30 days after surgery) occured. After resection of pulmonary metastases, one-year patient survival rate was 48 percent percent; three-year survival was not obsereved in our patients (maximum 900 days). History of hepatectomy because of previous liver metastases and pathologic findings of primary colorectal cancer had no effect on survival rate. Among the factors related to lung metastasis, only the existence of multiple metastases was related significantly with reduction of survival rate (P = 0.049). Colorectal cancer patients with resectionable pulmonary metastasis can be of relatively high survival rate; but one-year survival rate is lower in patients with more metastases.