Surgery

Hepatic metastasis may be considered to be resectable based on the following factors:[5,7,13-16]

For patients with resectable hepatic metastasis, a negative margin resection resulted in 5-year survival rates of 25% to 40% in mostly nonrandomized studies, such as the North Central Cancer Treatment Group trial (NCCTG-934653 [NCT00002575]).[5,7,13-16][Level of evidence C3] Improved surgical techniques and advances in preoperative imaging have improved patient selection for resection. In addition, multiple studies with multiagent chemotherapy have demonstrated that patients with metastatic disease isolated to the liver, which historically would be considered unresectable, can occasionally be made resectable after the administration of chemotherapy.[17]

For patients with unresectable liver metastases, excellent outcomes have been achieved with liver transplant. The optimal patient cohort for this therapy is still being determined, but in general, the goal is to achieve good initial systemic control with chemotherapy, followed by transplant. In one study of 91 patients, 11% underwent live donor liver transplant. At a median follow-up of 1.5 years after transplant, the recurrence-free survival rate was 62% and the overall survival (OS) rate was 100%.[18][Level of evidence C3]

In the TRANSMET study (NCT02597348), published in abstract form, 94 patients were randomly assigned to receive either chemotherapy and liver transplant (n = 47) or chemotherapy alone (n = 47). In an intent-to-treat analysis, the 5-year OS rate was 57% in the chemotherapy-and-liver transplant arm and 13% in the chemotherapy-alone arm. In a per-protocol analysis, the 5-year OS rate was 73% in the chemotherapy-and-liver transplant arm and 9% in the chemotherapy-alone arm.[19][Level of evidence A1]