Pulmonary metastasis of head and neck cancer: surgical removal outcomes from a tertiary care center

Purpose There has been no clear data on the effectiveness of pulmonary metastasectomy on several original cancers, including head and neck. We aim to collect data about the metastasectomies performed in our center for eligible patients and elaborate more on predictors and prognosis. Methods A retrospective analysis of 56 patients who underwent metastasectomy from head and neck cancers at our facility between January 2000 and January 2016 (16 years). Statistical analysis was performed based on gender, disease-free interval (DFI), location of the original tumor, and histological subtypes to assess their effect and relevance to the prognosis and disease recurrence. Results Twenty-nine males and 27 females had lung metastasis from head and neck. The primary lesions of the lung metastasis were more often found in the thyroid (34%), followed by nasopharynx (32%). As for histology, the most common one was papillary cancer (34%), followed by squamous cell carcinomas (29%). The DFI was more than 2 years in 32 patients (57%). The survival rates were 79.5% at 3 years and 71.7% at 5 years. In the univariate analysis, histology was the only independent prognostic factor (p = 0.05). On the other hand, age (p = 0.6), DFI (p = 0.24), and site of the primary tumor (p = .06) showed no effect on the prognosis of head and neck cancers metastasizing to the lungs. Conclusion Pulmonary metastasectomy for lesions originating from head and neck provides good long-term survival. Histological subtype was the only statistically significant prognostic factor.