Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the operation timing, methods, and outcome of pulmonary metastases of hepatoblastoma (HB) in children.
Methods: The clinical and follow-up data of 53 children with pulmonary metastases of HB that were admitted to our hospital from January 2012 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The pediatric patients, 36 male and 17 female, aged 13-124 months with the median age of 41 months, and all underwent routine thoracotomy.
Results: In the 53 cases, 77 lung metastatic tumors were resected. Further, 37 patients received only one operation, 10 received two operations, 4 received 3 operations, and 2 received 4 operations. Based on Kaplan-Meier analysis, the accumulative overall survival (OS) rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 86.8%, 69.0%, and 57.0%, respectively (median OS time: 60 months; 95% CI: 50.675-69.709 months), and accumulative EFS (vent-free survival) rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 86.8%, 67.0%, and 55.4%, respectively (median EFS time: 59 months; 95% CI: 49.519-68.578 months). According to univariate analysis, OS was significantly altered for patients with no more than 5 nodules (p = 0.023), lung metastases without extrapulmonary metastases (p = 0.000), and laterality (p = 0.029). Gender and age (less than three years) were not significantly related to survival. According to univariate analysis, lung metastases with extrapulmonary metastases could be considered as individual factor contributing to poorer prognosis.
Conclusion: In this pediatric group, patients with residual nodules after chemotherapy of HB could benefit from surgical treatment, but the appropriate surgical indication of metastasectomy needs to be further investigated.
Keywords: Hepatoblastoma; lung metastasis; pulmonary metastasectomy; surgical indication.