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Ann Thorac Surg 2004;78:1184-1189
© 2004 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Original article: general thoracic

Combined Resection of Superior Vena Cava for Lung Carcinoma: Prognostic Significance of Patterns of Superior Vena Cava Invasion

^a Thoracic Surgery Division, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Accepted for publication April 20, 2004.

^* Address reprint requests to Dr Suzuki, Thoracic Surgery Division, National Cancer Center Hospital, 1-1, Tsukiji 5-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan
kjsuzuki{at}ncc.go.jp

Presented at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons, San Antonio, TX, Jan 26–28, 2004.

	Abstract

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 
BACKGROUND: Combined resection of the superior vena cava (SVC) for lung carcinoma remains challenging in terms of technical aspect and prognosis. We attempted to clarify the surgical outcome of combined resection and reconstruction of the SVC for lung carcinoma.

METHODS: Between March 1980 and May 2001, among 3,499 lung resections, 40 (1.1%) patients underwent combined resection of the SVC. Thirty-four were men and 6 were women. Ages ranged from 37 to 77 years, with median of 64 years. Lobectomy and pneumonectomy was performed in 19 and 21 patients, respectively. The SVC system was totally resected and reconstructed with grafts in 11 patients, and partially resected in 29 patients. For the latter patients, autologous pericardial patches were used in 8 patients, and a running direct suture was performed in 21 patients. The survival curves were constructed by the method of Kaplan-Meier, and the curves were compared using the log-rank test.

RESULTS: Thirty-day mortality was 10%. The 5-year survival rate was 24%, with the median follow-up period for living patients 67 months (actual 5-year survivors were 7). The prognoses were compared between patients with SVC invasion by metastatic nodes (n = 15) and those with SVC invasion by a direct tumor extension (n = 25), and the survival difference was statistically significant (5-year survival rate, 6.6% versus 36%; p = 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: The pattern of SVC invasion was considered to be a significant prognostic factor, and this factor should be taken into consideration for evaluating the outcome of clinical trials for T4 lung cancer.

	Introduction

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 
Several authors have reported the feasibility of combined resection of the superior vena cava (SVC) for lung cancer, although invasion of the SVC by lung cancer is usually considered to be inoperable [1–7]. Surgical procedures for resection and reconstruction of the SVC system are complex and technically difficult. Lung cancer infiltrating the SVC frequently involves the bronchial tree, especially the carina, and lobectomy with bronchoplasty or pneumonectomy is often necessary to resect such lung tumors. Therefore surgical morbidity and mortality is not negligible. Some reports insist that the degree of SVC involvement by lung cancer was one of the major prognostic factors. Complete resection is also reported to be a significant prognostic factor. However, even for patients with completely resected lung cancer, the prognosis is not acceptable in this population [7]. Thus, to operate on patients with lung cancer infiltrating the SVC, the selection of surgical candidates is quite important, and we attempted to investigate prognostic factors in patients with resected lung cancer who needed combined resection of the SVC system.

	Patients and Methods

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 
Selected Patients
Between March 1980 and May 2001, 3,499 patients with lung cancer underwent surgical intervention at our institute, and 40 patients (1.1%) eventually underwent combined resection of the SVC. There were 34 men and 6 women, a male to female ratio of 5.6:1. Age ranged from 37 to 77 years, with a median of 64 years. All lung cancers were located on the right side. Preoperative workup included a plain chest roentgenogram, thoracic and abdominal computed tomographies, or ultrasonography for abdomen, a brain computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, and a bone scan. Disease stages were determined based on the TNM classification of the International Union Against Cancer, 5th edition [8]. Clinical stage was as follows: 3 for stage I, 5 for stage II, 13 for stage IIIA, 12 for stage IIIB, and 6 for stage IV. Preoperative treatment was performed in 6 patients: preoperative chemotherapy for 2, radiotherapy for 1, and chemoradiotherapy for 3, and none of them underwent the multimodal strategy in clinical trial setting. Postoperative treatment was performed in 7 patients. Chemotherapy was performed for 1 patient and radiotherapy for 6 patients. Histologic typing of resected lung carcinoma resulted in 17 adenocarcinomas, 15 squamous cell carcinomas, 4 large cell carcinomas, and 4 other histologic types. The maximum tumor dimension ranged from 1.8 to 11 cm, with a mean of 5.6 cm. No patients were pathologically classified as stage I, 5 were classed as stage IIB, 6 as stage IIIA, 26 as stage IIIB, and 3 as stage IV. As to T factor, T4 disease was found in 26 patients, and mediastinal lymph node metastases were found in 27 patients.

Surgical Procedures
Lung carcinoma was resected through a median sternotomy in 7 patients (18%) and through a right thoracotomy in 33 patients (82%; Table 1). A median sternotomy approach was used mainly for making an intraoperative shunt between the left brachiocephalic vein and the right atrium. If the shunt is patent, combined resection of the SVC can be performed more simply because a cross-clamp of the SVC is safely performed. A right thoracotomy in the fourth or fifth intercostal space was usually used to access the tumor. Through this approach we could easily access the lung and mediastinum including the SVC system. The only disadvantage of this approach is the difficulty of accessing the left brachiocephalic vein. Pneumonectomy was performed in 21 patients (53%) and lobectomy in 19 patients (47%). Bronchoplasty procedures were necessary in 20 patients (50%), and sleeve pneumonectomy was performed in 15 of these patients (75%). Surgical margin was negative macroscopically and microscopically in 33 patients (83%) and 28 patients (70%), respectively. As to the adjuvant therapy, among 12 patients with incomplete resection, 3 could not undergo adjuvant therapy because of postoperative major complications. Another patient did not undergo adjuvant therapy because of disseminated tumor cells. Two patients were considered to have minimum positive margin and we did not perform adjuvant therapy. In all, 6 patients with incomplete resection underwent adjuvant therapy. All of them had postoperative radiotherapy, and 2 long-term survivors underwent postoperative radiotherapy of 45 and 50 Gy.

Clinicopathologic Factors and Statistic Analyses
The medical record of each patient was examined as to several prognostic factors. To investigate the impact on survival, the following conventional clinicopathologic factors were studied retrospectively: age (continuous variables), sex (men versus women), histologic type of tumor (squamous cell carcinoma versus others), pathologic T factors (T1 to T3 versus T4), pathologic N status (pN0 to pN1 versus pN2 to pN3), type of reconstruction of the SVC (graft versus other methods), patterns of SVC involvement (direct extension by primary tumor versus by lymph nodes), and curability of the surgical resection (incomplete versus complete). The definition for incomplete resection is as follows: (1) positive histologic margin, and (2) disseminated disease. We had 1 patient with disseminated disease, and the disseminated tumor cells were diagnosed pathologically, not noticed during surgical resection. These factors were entered into univariate analyses to determine which clinicopathologic factors have a greater impact on the 5-year survival rate. The median follow-up period for living patients was 67 months. The length of survival was defined as the interval in months between the day of surgical resection of lung carcinoma and the date of overall death or the last follow-up. An observation was censored at the last follow-up when the patients were alive. The survival rates were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and univariate analyses were performed by means of the log-rank test on StatView 5.0 (SAS Institute, Inc, Cary, NC) with a PCV-RX75 (Sony, Inc, Tokyo, Japan) [9]. Statistical analysis was considered to be significant when the probability value was less than 0.05.

	Results

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 
Vascular Patency, Surgical Morbidity, and Mortality
For patients undergoing cross-clamping of the SVC, the time for complete obstruction ranged from 10 to 44 minutes, with a median of 33 minutes. No perioperative complications caused by the clamping, such as neurologic deficit, were observed. As regards vascular patency, there were no early prosthesis thromboses in our series. However, there were two vascular occlusions (5%) with a median follow-up period for patency of the graft of 67 months. One occlusion occurred as a result of a locoregional recurrence of lung cancer 9 months after surgery, and the other was caused by a thrombosis 13 months after surgery. Postoperative major morbidity and 30-day mortality were 40% (n = 16) and 10% (n = 4), respectively. There were three bronchopleural fistulas with one postoperative death, three major pneumonias with one fatal sequence, 4 patients with thoracic empyema, 3 patients with postoperative bleeding, one fatal bronchoarterial fistula, and one fatal Mallory-Weiss syndrome. Among 16 patients with major complications, 11 patients underwent bronchoplastic procedures. Furthermore, 8 patients underwent sleeve pneumonectomy.

Prognostic Factors
The overall 5-year survival rate for 40 resected lung cancer patients was 24% with the median follow-up period for living patients of 67 months (7 patients were actual 5-year survivors). Univariate analyses revealed no significant prognostic factors except the patterns of involvement of the SVC system. The 5-year survival rate of patients with SVC invasion by direct tumor extension (n = 25) was 36% and those with SVC invasion by metastatic lymph nodes (n = 15) was 6.6%, and this difference was statistically significant (p = 0.05, log-rank test; Fig 1).

View larger version (21K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Fig 1. Survival by the patterns of involving the superior vena cava system for patients with lung cancer who underwent combined resection of the superior vena cava. A significant difference was observed (p = 0.05, log-rank test).

	Comment

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

Considering the surgical indication for lung cancer involving the SVC, the possibility of good prognosis with low postoperative complications would be key, and the most important thing is the selection of patients who will benefit from surgical resection. Although some prognostic factors, such as the degree of SVC involvement, have been reported, controversies still remain [7]. Our results showed the pattern of SVC involvement to be a significant prognostic factor. The prognoses were compared between patients with SVC invasion by metastatic lymph nodes (n = 15) and those with SVC invasion by a direct tumor extension (n = 25), and the survival difference was significant (5-year survival rate: 6.6% versus 36%; p = 0.05). This is the major finding from our study. Interestingly, nodal status (N0 to N1 versus N2 to N3) was not a significant prognostic factor. That is to say, if a lung cancer is centrally located and involves the SVC directly, the prognosis of the patients would be relatively promising. In contrast, if a tumor is located peripherally and metastatic lymph nodes involve the SVC, the prognosis would be dismal. These are the unique and important prognostic factors, and they should be taken into consideration in planning for surgery or a clinical trial for T4 lung cancer.

Our results confirmed reported surgical mortality and morbidity for T4 lung cancer surgery. The rate of postoperative complications appears to be higher than previous reports [1–3, 6, 7, 16]. Right side pneumonectomy is often associated with postoperative complications, and in our series right pneumonectomies were performed in more than half of patients. Furthermore, among them 15 patients underwent right side sleeve pneumonectomy. This is a possible explanation for the relatively high rate of postoperative morbidity and mortality.

We prefer using an extraluminal shunt, rather than an intraluminal shunt, when complete SVC clamping is needed. Median sternotomy is the easy way to make a temporary shunt between the left brachiocephalic vein and the right atrium. If the bypass remains patent during clamping of the SVC, the risk to the central nervous system would decrease. We had no choice but to perform cross-clamping of the SVC in 7 patients. The time for cross-clamping ranged from 10 to 44 minutes, with a median of 33 minutes. Postoperative neurologic complication was not observed in our series. The time of brain damage onset has been a topic of debate. According to experimental data, approximately 60 minutes of clamping was well tolerated in animal models [17]. Although the definitive report for human models has not been reported, we consider up to 30 minutes of clamping would be tolerable. However, to avoid possible damage to the brain, rapid reconstruction is mandatory.

Postoperative thromboembolic disorder is relatively rare in our country. Therefore, an intraoperative or postoperative regimen of anticoagulation therapy is not always adopted. We experienced no cases with early occlusion of the graft, but two cases with chronic graft occlusion. One of these patients had intrathoracic recurrent disease, and the other had thrombosis in the graft. The number of vascular reconstructions for the latter patient was two. A graft with a small lumen (8 mm in diameter) was used for the first bypass between the left brachiocephalic vein and the right atrium. The second graft with a lumen of 12 mm in diameter was placed between the right brachiocephalic vein and the proximal stump (near the heart). We believe that the risk of occlusion of grafts depends on the number of reconstructions or the caliber of the lumen of the grafts. Two vascular reconstructions would be vulnerable to vascular occlusion, and a small-caliber prosthesis would also lead to vascular troubles. As a rule, we prefer isolated reconstruction of the SVC system with a large-lumen prosthesis.

Because distant failure is the most frequent site of postoperative recurrence, surgery for T4 disease should be performed in multimodal strategy in principle. Considering the indication for SVC resection, direct involvement of the vessel by the primary tumor would be the best situation. When the primary tumor is located peripherally and mediastinal lymph nodes involve the SVC system, the prognosis would be dismal. This criterion for SVC resection should be taken into consideration for future clinical trials dealing with T4 lung cancer.

	Discussion

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 
DR FRANK C. DETTERBECK (Chapel Hill, NC): I am a little bit unclear about that slide where you showed no difference between T stages. Are not all of these tumors T4 if they involve the superior vena cava (SVC)? Or are some not counted as T4 if there was nodal involvement into the SVC?

My second question is, how would you evaluate a patient preoperatively? If you find N2 or mediastinal lymph node involvement, do you think that patient should nevertheless undergo surgery, or is that a contraindication to surgical resection?

DR SUZUKI: Thank you for your comments. Among 40 patients, 26 had T4 disease. Those tumors invaded the SVC system. The remaining 14 patients had T2 or T3 disease. For those patients, the SVC system was resected because of nodal invasion. Furthermore, in some cases surgical T4 was restaged to pathologic T3 disease. Surgical findings are not always correct considering pathologic examination.

As to preoperative evaluation, if clinical N2 nodes are found, we do not recommend surgery alone. Mediastinoscopy is recommended, and, if positive for cancer cells, chemoradiotherapy will be planned. However, if nodal status is marginal and the nodes are involved by the primary tumor, surgical resection might be considered. Distant failure is dominant in this population, and systemic treatment is mandatory in principle.

As to the T4 disease, we have 26 patients with T4 disease. Other patients have T3. That is because it is difficult to evaluate the invasiveness of the tumor to the SVC intraoperatively, so we sometimes have to resect the SVC for T3 disease.

For the second question, usually now we are performing mediastinoscopy for clinical N2 status patients. Those surgeries were performed after 1990 or 1995. We used to perform surgical resection for clinical N2 disease, as you know, in Japan. So we diagnosed N2 in a patient based on the computed tomographic (CT) findings, the same criteria as you used.

DR WICKII VIGNESWARAN (Maywood, IL): What percentage of patients had preoperative chemoradiation in your group? Obviously, the other question is, the T1 and T2 patients who have the nodal involvement of the SVC, should they undergo surgical resection?

DR SUZUKI: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy was performed on 3 patients. They are not included in any clinical trial. The chemoradiotherapy was performed in practice.

DR VIGNESWARAN: Would it be logical to downstage some of these patients before going for surgical resection?

DR SUZUKI: I did not evaluate that point.

DR SULAIMAN HASAN (Charleston, WV): I enjoyed your presentation. I have two questions.

What graft material did you use? The other question obviously has to do with what you would do today if you had, say, N2 disease on mediastinoscopy. Would you stent some of these vena cavae or would you still do surgery on them or would you radiate them?

DR SUZUKI: We used Gore-Tex grafts. For the second question, now we do not perform surgery alone for clinical N2 disease. Chemoradiotherapy is the standard. But only for selected patients, after chemoradiotherapy or after chemotherapy, a surgical resection will be performed.

DR STEVEN R. DEMEESTER (Los Angeles, CA): What size Gore-Tex graft do you recommend?

DR SUZUKI: Probably I would recommend 12 mm to 14 mm for the reconstruction of the SVC. Probably this is smaller than you use in the United States. This is probably related to the size of the body in Japan and the United States.

DR DOMINIQUE GRUNENWALD (Paris, France): That was an excellent presentation, Dr Suzuki.

You reported an excellent patency of your reconstruction. What is your policy regarding anticoagulation therapy and what is the length of your treatment?

DR SUZUKI: Actually we rarely have patients with postoperative thromboembolic disease compared with the United States or European countries. So actually we do not always adopt postoperative anticoagulant therapy, only for selected patients.

DR DAVID V. SABORIO (Brooklyn, NY): This was a very provocative paper, but I have a couple of comments. First, the CT scan you presented shows a very large tumor with clear invasion of mediastinal structures. I would probably not offer surgery as initial therapy to a patient with such findings on CT scan. So I would like to know whether that CT scan was taken after neoadjuvant therapy and before surgery or before neoadjuvant therapy was started. Second, if you currently perform surgery on patients with such advanced tumors on CT scan and for your paper to be more convincing, you would have to tell us what percentage of patients in your institution get thoracotomies and are found to be nonresectable.

DR SUZUKI: Could you repeat the first question?

DR DEMEESTER: He was interested in what percentage had neoadjuvant therapy and were the CAT scans done before or after neoadjuvant therapy.

DR SUZUKI: Usually we do not perform surgery alone for such a patient. We usually perform preoperative chemotherapy or preoperative chemoradiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy alone.

DR SABORIO: And what is the percentage of patients in your institution who get thoracotomies and are found to be unresectable?

DR SUZUKI: About 5%, I think.

DR BENNY WEKSLER (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): I have noticed, and you may correct me if I am wrong, that you had 4 empyemas in 40 patients, which is 10%, and this seems a little high. Maybe you can comment on that. Also, what do you do when you get empyema with a Gore-Tex graft in the vena cava?

DR SUZUKI: Actually, compared with reported papers, the postoperative surgical mortality is relatively high. Probably this is because of the rate of pneumonectomy. Three pneumonectomies were performed in 15 patients. That is why our postoperative surgical mortality is relatively high. And if the patient has empyema postoperatively, probably we would perform an open-window method to prevent additional reinfection intrathoracically.

DR DEMEESTER: Were there any problems with the graft with that?

DR SUZUKI: No, I do not think so, but some people have postoperative bleeding.

DR KESHAUDAS PAHUJA (Stoughton, MA): I enjoyed the paper.

I have a couple of questions. What do you do with the phrenic nerve? Do you always sacrifice that or do you try to preserve it, and what are the consequences of that?

Second, did you have any incidence after pneumonectomy of pulmonary edemas in your cases?

DR SUZUKI: What is the question?

DR RICHARD H. FEINS (Rochester, NY): What do you do with the phrenic nerve, or what does the pathologist do with the phrenic nerve?

DR DEMEESTER: Do you always remove the phrenic nerve with the surgery?

DR SUZUKI: The phrenic nerve?

DR FEINS: The phrenic nerve that runs along the cava, does that go en bloc with your resection? You do not preserve the phrenic nerve?

DR SUZUKI: We sometimes preserve the phrenic nerve, but sometimes we will resect the phrenic nerve when we resect the lung cancer.

DR PAHUJA: Did you most of the time try to preserve it or did you try to resect it most of the time?

DR SUZUKI: Pardon me?

DR FEINS: Do you try to preserve it or do you resect it most of the time?

DR SUZUKI: If we see the tumor invade or if it is just adjacent to the phrenic nerve, we almost always resect the phrenic nerve.

DR FEINS: Why do you find it necessary to replace the innominate vein, or do you? The innominate vein, is it truly necessary to do anything with that, the left innominate vein?

DR SUZUKI: Sometimes we just leave the left side innominate vein. We prefer isolated vascular reconstruction for this.

	Acknowledgments

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 
This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Cancer Research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare

	References

Top Abstract Introduction Patients and Methods Results Comment Discussion Acknowledgments References

 

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This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Kenji Suzuki Hisao Asamura Ryosuke Tsuchiya Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Suzuki, K. Articles by Tsuchiya, R. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Suzuki, K. Articles by Tsuchiya, R. Related Collections Lung - cancer