Lung Metastatic Disease: Surgical Resection and Locoregional Chemotherapy

Abstract

Currently, surgical resection remains the gold standard for resectable lung metastases. Prognostic factors are histology, complete resection, number of metastases and disease-free interval. However, there is a high rate of recurrent disease in the thorax, even if systemic chemotherapy is applied. Because the latter is limited in dose due to systemic toxicity, new treatment options are being developed to selectively deliver high-dose chemotherapy into the lung, reducing systemic toxicity. Isolated lung perfusion (ILuP), similar to isolated limb perfusion, is an experimental surgical technique to deliver highdose chemotherapy into the lung without systemic exposure. Biological response modifiers like tumour necrosis factor can also be administered. ILuP results in significantly higher concentration of chemotherapy in the target organ compared to systemic chemotherapy, together with a survival benefit in experimental models of pulmonary metastases. Several phase I studies have shown that ILuP is technically feasible with low morbidity and low impact on the patient's pulmonary function. However, the utility of this technique is limited because it is an invasive technique. Other techniques to selectively deliver high-dose locoregional chemotherapy are embolic trapping (chemo-embolization), selective pulmonary artery perfusion (SPAP) without control of the venous effluent and the minimally invasive lung suffusion technique. This review will discuss surgical resection of lung metastases and address several techniques developed to deliver high doses of chemotherapy into the lung, as well as the current progress in experimental and clinical studies.