Surgical Treatment of Lung Metastasis in Metastatic Esophageal Cancer

Esophageal cancer is a highly lethal disease due to the high rate of local or distant metastasis. The incidence of esophageal cancer is 5.9 per 100,000 population. Most of the patients are male with a significant difference in the mortality between sexes. Treatment of esophageal cancer depends on variable factors and should be discussed with a multidisciplinary approach. There are several studies and trials defining trimodality treatment as the standard of care for the resectable esophageal cancer patients. The incidence of pulmonary metastasis of esophageal carcinoma can vary between 17.5% and 41.4%. Although there are various studies about the role of metastasectomy in colorectal carcinoma, germ cell tumors, and sarcomas, few studies exist about the evaluation and treatment plan for the pulmonary metastasis of esophageal cancer. The largest series, including 49 patients, in the literature reports a median survival time of 18 months with a recurrence rate of 33%. They highlighted the impact of disease-free interval on prognosis with an overall 5-year survival as 29.6%. Although we need more data for a better understanding of the procedure on disease survival, surgical resection of the pulmonary metastasis is feasible in suitable patients.