Treatment of multiple primary squamous cell carcinomas of the lung

Background. The prevalence of multiple primary bronchogenic cancers, especially squamous cell carcinoma, has been increasing as a result of improvements in early detection and cancer therapy. Materials. We treated 14 patients with multiple squamous cell carcinoma of the tracheobronchial tree and lung, which corresponded to 2.3% of all squamous cell carcinoma patients undergoing resection. Results. Two patients had peripheral secondary tumors and underwent segmentectomy or partial resection of the lung with good results. The secondary lesions were superficial and minute (less than 5 mm) in 3 patients, and treated with neodymium-yttrium aluminum garnet laser ablation. Five patients had endobronchial tumors of the nodular or polypoid type with suspected deep invasion or invasion extending beyond the bronchial wall based on the bronchoscopic findings. They underwent parenchymal-sparing limited bronchoplasty with excellent results. Three patients had more advanced tumor with massive invasion outside the bronchial wall without lymph node metastases, 1 patient underwent sleeve lobectomy with long survival, and the other 2 patients without operation died of bleeding or had recurrence. One patient with stage IIIA (T2 N2) secondary cancer who underwent lobectomy died 14 months after the second operation. Conclusions. The surgical treatment of multiple squamous cell carcinoma is justified and limited operation using bronchoplastic techniques provides superior results.