Four cases of resected pulmonary tumor metastatic from gastric cancer

Background. Pulmonary metastases from gastric cancer are rarely resected because the most common patterns of metastases from gastric cancer are carcinomatous lymphangiosis or carcinomatous pleuritis. Cases. We studied 4 cases of solitary pulmonary metastases from gastric cancer that were completely resected, and compared their characteristics with those of the primary lesions. Two of the cases were preoperatively diagnosed as primary pulmonary carcinoma. The mean age of the cases was 63 years old, and all were male. All cases had undergone total gastrectomy. There cases were type III, moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma, medullary type, INF beta. Lymphatic involvement was observed in all cases. All cases recurred and died after the operation, and the mean survival time after the resection of the metastatic lesion was 13.8 months. Conclusion. Solitary pulmonary lesion in cases with a history of gastric cancer should be resected only when the possibility of primary lung cancer could not be ruled out.