The full cohort of 512 patients and the nested controlled trial in 93 patients in the Pulmonary Metastasectomy in Colorectal Cancer (PulMiCC) study raise doubts about the effective size at present claimed

Table 1 Favourable factors for survival were better in the metastasectomy group

Patient factors	Metastasectomy	No metastasectomy	Hazard ratio
Patient factors	N = 263	N = 128	Hazard ratio
ECOG zero^a	68%	36%
Median %FEV1^b	96%	87%
Solitary metastasis^c	65%	31%	2.04
CEA < 5 ng/ml^d	31%	21%	1.91
No liver metastases	36%	28%	1.22
Five-year survival	47%	22%

^aEaster Cooperative Oncology Group 0–5 where zero is unimpaired
^bForced Expiratory Volume in 1st second as a percentage of predicted values based on height and sex
^cThe hazard ratio is for multiple versus solitary. Here are given the % of patients with a solitary metastasis in each group
^dThe tumour marker carcinoembryonic antigen. All hazard ratios are from the meta-analysis of Gonzalez et al. [4]

ISSN: 1749-8090