A review of surgery for lung metastasis from colorectal cancer

Lung is one of the most vulnerable organs for distant metastasis from colorectal cancer (CRC) with a mean survival time of 5 to 19 months in literature. For selected cases of lung metastasis from CRC, aggressive treatment can provide long-term survival benefit to the patients among which surgery can provide a significant better survival benefit than other treatment modalities. However, multimodality treatment approaches can provide further improvement for the clinical outcome. The advancement of minimally invasive surgery for the pulmonary diseases has offered the patients an effective treatment option for tumor eradication while a fast course of postoperative recovery. In the article, we reviewed the current status of treatment for pulmonary metastasis from CRC as well as the experience in the National Taiwan University Hospital.