Survival of patients with untreated liver metastases from colorectal cancer.

In 105 patients with colorectal cancer, liver metastases were found at extirpation of the primary tumor. The spontaneous survival was a median of 10 months. The intraoperative clinical diagnosis of liver metastases was subsequently confirmed by autopsy in 77 patients, was uncertain in 26, and was proved wrong in two at subsequent celiotomy. The accumulative experience shows that the median survivals range from 6 to 12 months, which is considerably better than in unselected series of liver metastases.