2023 Volume 37 Issue 6 Pages 502-507
There have been few reports on patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who experienced liver recurrence without recurrence at other sites after lung resection. Herein, we examined 11 patients with NSCLC who experienced liver recurrence without recurrence at other sites after lung resection. Nine patients were men and two were women. The median age was 73 years (range, 45-78 years); 10 patients underwent lobectomy and 1 underwent segmentectomy. Histological types included adenocarcinoma in six patients, squamous cell carcinoma in four, and large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma in one. Ten patients underwent chemotherapy and one underwent liver resection after recurrence in the liver. During the follow-up after treatment for liver metastasis, disease progression was observed in all cases. Median progression-free survival after treatment for liver metastasis was 5 months (range, 1-23 months) and median overall survival was 21 months (range, 8-47 months). During the clinical course after treatment for liver metastasis, four patients (among these, three had squamous cell carcinoma) did not experience recurrence at sites other than the liver, whereas seven patients (among these, six had adenocarcinoma and one had squamous cell carcinoma) experienced recurrence at sites in addition to the liver. Based on these results, the ratio of squamous cell carcinoma tended to be high in patients who did not experience recurrence at sites other than the liver. It was difficult to control liver and brain metastases in all cases. To date, seven patients have died of lung cancer and four are living with the disease. Based on our data and those of previous reports, squamous cell carcinoma is considered a good candidate for the local treatment of liver metastasis; however, future study is needed to determine the indication of local treatment for liver metastasis from NSCLC.
