[Chest surgery in patients with pulmonary metastasis from head and neck cancer].

There have been only a few reports about a surgical resection of pulmonary metastasis from malignant head and neck tumors. Here we reviewed the literatures concerning the surgical results of pulmonary metastasectomy from malignant head and neck tumors, and discussed the indication for surgery. The 5-year overall survival after a metastasectomy was approximately 50.0% including all the histological types of head and neck cancer. Limiting to the squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the 5-year overall survival was approximately 30.0%. Of the head and neck SCCs, the oral cavity SCC such as SCC of the tongue showed an extremely poor survival after metastasectomy. A pulmonary metastasectomy of squamous cell carcinoma is thus justified with the exception of oral cavity origin. Both adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary glands and thyroid cancer are of low malignant nature, and the progression after occurrence of distant metastases is also very slow. Therefore, the survival benefit by those pulmonary metastasectomy is not evident.