TY - JOUR AU - Moneke, Isabelle AU - Funcke, Friederike AU - Schmid, Severin AU - Osei-Agyemang, Thomas AU - Passlick, Bernward PY - 2019 TI - Pulmonary laser-assisted metastasectomy is associated with prolonged survival in patients with colorectal cancer JF - Journal of Thoracic Disease; Vol 11, No 8 (August 31, 2019): Journal of Thoracic Disease Y2 - 2019 KW - N2 - Background: Pulmonary metastases develop in 10–15% of patients with colorectal cancer. Surgical metastasectomy currently provides the only hope for a cure for these patients. The aim of this study was to analyze the expanding role of pulmonary metastasectomy in the context of laser-assisted surgery (LAS) vs. non-laser-assisted surgery (NLAS). Methods: We performed a single-center retrospective analysis of 204 patients who underwent curative pulmonary metastasectomy for colorectal cancer between 01/2005 and 12/2016. The main endpoint was survival. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied for statistical analysis and survival rates were compared with the log rank test. Results: Median follow-up was 53 months. A total of 267 metastases were resected in 154 operations in the NLAS group (median: 1) vs. 438 metastases in 122 operations in the LAS group (median: 5; P vs. 32 months; P=0.008). Anatomical resections were significantly reduced using LAS, 8% vs. 23% respectively. Despite more negative predictors in the LAS group, there was no statistically significant difference in overall disease-specific 5-year survival (70% LAS vs. 58% NLAS; P=0.18). Conclusions: Survival after pulmonary metastasectomy has previously been shown to correlate with a low number of metastases and a longer disease-free interval. However, with the tissue-saving LAS technique complete resectability can be achieved in patients with more metastases and long-term survival is possible for selected patients. UR - https://jtd.amegroups.org/article/view/31144