Thirty-eight operations were performed on thirty-six patients for the resection of localized pulmonary metastatic disease secondary to lesions arising in the head, trunk, or extremities. The primary lesions were largely sarcomatous. The pulmonary resections were limited in extent, consistent with the size and location of the metastatic lesion, and there was no operative mortality.
The one, three, and five-year survival rates were 69, 21, and 23 per cent, respectively. The prognosis did not appear to be related to the specific type of lesion, the size of the lesion, the presence of clinical signs of pulmonary involvement, or the length of time since the primary operation. Multicentricity of the metastatic lesions was associated with lower survival rates.
The prognosis in these patients does not appear to be quite so good as in those with localized pulmonary metastasis from visceral organs, but the results indicate that resection is justified and worth while in properly selected cases.