Advancement in the surgical treatment of pulmonary metastasis

The management of pulmonary metastases is a target in constant movement. Historically, it has been assumed that patients have a very poor survival when a primary tumour invades other organs, particularly the lungs. Some preliminary works have demonstrated that a substantial number of patients undergoing lung metastasectomy enjoy complete remission, thus benefit of prolonged survival. Initially proposed for highly selected patients with specific cancers, the indication of metastasectomy has expanded to various primary solid tumors and is now proposed in daily practice for a large number of patients, accounting for almost 10% of our surgical activity.