Routine chest computed tomography as a preoperative work-up for primary colorectal cancer: is there any benefit in short-term outcome?

Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the role of pre-operative chest computed tomography (CT) compared with abdominopelvic CT (AP-CT) and chest radiography (CXR) for detecting pulmonary metastasis in patients with primary colorectal cancer (CRC).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 619 patients with primary CRC who simultaneously received a preoperative chest CT (chest CT group), AP-CT with hilar extension, and CXR (CXR group).

Results: In the chest CT group, there were 297 (48.0%) normal, 198 (32%) benign, 96 (15.5%) indeterminate, 26 (4.2%) metastasis, and two lung cancers. Eighteen patients (2.9%) in the CXR group who had no pulmonary metastasis were diagnosed with pulmonary metastasis on a chest CT. The sensitivity and accuracy were 83.9% and 99.0% in the chest CT group, respectively, and 29.0% and 91.5% in the CXR group, respectively (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0003).

Conclusion: Chest CT appears to improve the accuracy of pre-operative staging in patients with CRC and is useful for the early detection of pulmonary metastasis as a baseline study for abnormal lung nodules.