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Advances in the surgical treatment of primary malignancies and the recent chemotherapy have led to an expansion of the surgical treatment of metastatic lung tumors. However, multiple pulmonary metastases are often found and may affect both lungs. It is difficult to reach tumors in the posterior parts of the lung when using a common midsternal approach, especially lesions located in the left lower lobe. We performed transsternal simultaneous bilateral thoracotomy on 10 patients with bilateral lung tumors (9 bilateral metastatic pulmonary tumors and 1 bilateral primary lung cancer). This procedure provides a wide operative field and is an effective method of thoracotomy for patients with bilateral lung tumors. In future, this method should be more actively performed for patients in whom it is indicated.

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Orthotopic left lung grafts from Brown Norway (BN) donors were transplanted to Lewis (LEW) rat recipients which had been treated with a single dose of FK506 10mg/kg body weight intramuscularly on postoperative day 3. Although the lungs were rejected with a median survival time of 7 days, with a range of 6-8 days in the untreated controls, maximum survival was prolonged to 60 days. The major adverse effects of this therapy were reduction of feeding, loss of body weight, and diarrhea. One of the 7 rats died on the 21st postoperative day due to anorexia. The effects of this therapy were investigated by histopathological examination and flow cytometric analysis using monoclonal antibodies against rat lymphocytes: OX-39 (anti-interleukin 2 receptor (IL-2R)) and OX-6 (anti-class II MHC). Histopathologically, the lung allografts showed mild perivascular and peribronchiolar cuffs of mononuclear cells, while marked reduction of the thymic medulla with FK506 treatment was also observed. Flow cytometric analysis of the transplanted lung showed no significant changes. Regarding the thymus, the percentages of positive cells labeled with OX-39 and OX-6 were significantly suppressed after this treatment. In the spleen, the number of OX-6-positive cells significantly decreased. The results using this therapy thus suggest that the suppression of IL-2R and MHC class II expression was systemically maintained for a long time.

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