Results of pulmonary metastasectomy for osteosarcoma in the pediatric age group.
10080 Background: Despite multimodal treatment concepts and complete surgical resection, prognosis in pediatric patients with pulmonary metastases from osteosarcoma has remained limited due to frequent relapse of disease. We investigated the results of an aggressive surgical approach. Methods: In a retrospective study, procedures and outcomes of pulmonary metastasectomy in the pediatric age group (up to 18 years) at our institution were analyzed over a period of 10 years (1999-2009). Resection of the primary osteogenic tumor and chemotherapy (CROSS-96-protocol and EURAMOS-1-protocol) were performed prior to thoracic surgery. Results: Forty-five pediatric patients (20 females) underwent pulmonary metastasectomies via sternotomy or sequential anterolateral thoracotomy at a mean age of 14 (6 -18) years. At primary surgery, a mean number of 7.9 (1 – 53) palpable suspicious lesions were resected per patient. Histo-pathological evaluation revealed 3.7 (0 – 40) metastases per patient. Mean total duration of surgery was 152 (46–323) minutes. Mean hospital stay was 10 days (3 – 33). In-hospital and 30-day mortality was 0%. The overall survival at 1 and 5 years was 97.8% and 77.3%, respectively. Mean disease-free-survival was 12.2 (3.2-38.0) months. In 19 (42.2 %) patients recurrent pulmonary metastases were detected and re-thoracotomies were required. Up to 7 procedures per patient were performed. Overall survival for patients undergoing more than one surgical procedure for recurrent lung metastases was not statistically different from survival in patients without relapse (p > 0.05). Survival was significantly better in patients initially presenting with less than 10 metastases (85.3 % vs. 54.1 % at 5 years, p = 0.028). Conclusions: Complete pulmonary metastasectomies are essential in pediatric osteosarcoma patients with lung metastasis. Repeated resections for recurrent relapses improve survival and may allow for long-term event-free-survival.