Minimally invasive surgical treatment of lung metastases from colorectal cancer

  With the continuous development of medicine, some diseases that we once thought were advanced and had no hope of treatment in the past have gradually obtained better results, such as colorectal cancer liver and lung metastases.  Surgical indications of colorectal cancer pulmonary metastases Concurrently discovered liver and lung metastases coexist with the primary foci. The management of liver metastases from colorectal cancer is very mature and a certain consensus has been formed, for example, our MDT team of colorectal cancer in Zhongshan Hospital has published our guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of liver metastases; metastases existing at the same time can be removed together with the primary foci as long as the number is limited and local resection is possible, as long as the patient’s physical condition allows; lung, as the second distant metastatic lesion from colorectal cancer, can As the second distant metastasis of colorectal cancer, it can exist together with liver metastasis or lung metastasis alone. Of course, if the patient’s situation is more complicated, such as the liver surgery is very difficult or the lung surgery requires lobectomy or bilateral thoracoscopy, etc., we will choose to treat the liver and lung metastases in stages.  Heterochronous detection of pulmonary metastases. For lung metastases that appear during the follow-up after primary resection, some patients can obtain good results through surgical resection; it is generally considered that the interval of lung metastases after surgery, the situation of tumor indicators in blood, whether there is enlargement or metastasis of lymph nodes in the lung gate, the distribution and size of lung metastases, etc. are important bases for considering whether to give patients surgical resection. Of course, another important issue is whether the nodules in the lungs are primary lung cancer or lung metastasis of colorectal cancer, or not malignant lesions at all, but some chronic inflammation or special infection in the lungs, etc., and this requires a mature thoracic surgeon to make his own judgment based on rich clinical experience, and if the diagnosis encounters difficulties, even percutaneous lung aspiration or tracheoscopic TBLB, EBUS-TBNA, etc., can be considered. EBUS-TBNA, etc., to help judge and make a reasonable treatment plan.  Development of minimally invasive techniques and surgical management of colorectal cancer pulmonary metastases Pulmonary metastases from colorectal cancer are most suitable for minimally invasive surgery because the surgery is less invasive, a chest tube can be removed in about 3 days, it can be operated together with the primary focus and liver, and multiple thoracic surgeries can be performed. Minimally invasive techniques for resection of pulmonary metastases are well established and are one of the main procedures we use to train junior residents.  Given the good survival and good response rate to chemotherapy or targeted drugs in patients with bowel cancer, patients can have long treatment cycles, so we want to be as minimally invasive as possible to preserve lung function as much as possible and create conditions for treatment. Therefore, when we perform resection of lung metastases, we need to be careful to avoid lobectomy as much as possible unless it is really impossible to perform lung wedge resection. Total pneumonectomy is strongly opposed if it is not for salvage.