Our Experiences of Vertebrectomy for Lung Cancer Invading the Spine

Surgery for lung cancer invading the spine remains challenging associated with high morbidity and mortality. We describe our surgical approach and assess the outcome of surgical treatment lung cancer invading the spine.We retrospectively reviewed our recent experiences of lung cancer with vertebral invasion, in which we have performed total or partial vertebrectomy from 2011 through 2015.We experienced 8 patients who were treated with partial or total vertebrectomy for lung cancer. Vertebral invasion was evaluated by chest computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging findings. N factors were estimated as cN0 in all patients based on chest CT and PET-CT findings. Two patients were treated by preoperative induction therapy. Total vertebrectomy was performed in 2 patients, hemivertebrectomy in 2 patients and transverse-process resection in 4 patients. In all 8 cases, complete resection was performed. Morbidity was 75% (6 patients) and no mortality occurred. Overall survival rate( 5 years) was 75%.Lung cancer surgery combined with vertebrectomy is highly aggressive suegery associated with high morbidity, however, this procedure is a promising treatment option for selected lung cancer patients, such as N0M0 disease with invasion to the spine.