Treatment of colorectal hepatic metastases by intrahepatic chemotherapy alone or as an adjuvant to complete or partial removal of metastatic disease.

Because of the wide variation in reported benefits from the use of intrahepatic chemotherapy for colorectal hepatic metastases, the authors performed their own phase II studies comparing the use of intrahepatic chemotherapy alone and intrahepatic chemotherapy as an adjuvant to complete or partial removal of metastatic colorectal cancer to the liver. Techniques for partial removal included unilateral and bilateral wedge resection, peripheral presinusoidal embolization of the liver, and portal vein branch ligation. Patients were staged using the per cent hepatic replacement method of Pettavel and Taylor, and patients with bilateral metastases were included in the study. Twenty-seven patients, mean age 60.3 years, were examined. There were 19 males, mean age 60.4 years, and eight females, mean age 60 years. The patients were divided into four groups. Group A had an implantable pump only; Group B had an implantable pump and resection; Group C had an implantable pump and arterial embolization and portal vein branch ligation; and Group D had an implantable pump, partial resection, arterial embolization, and portal vein branch ligation. Kaplan-Meyer survival curves were calculated for all of these groups. A separate analysis was carried out for each of the stages, and a comparison was made. The study indicated that the overall median survival time was 18 months and that the more radical the treatment in addition to chemotherapy, the better the results. Such results were not totally dependent on the staging of the tumor volume but were dependent on the degree of extirpation of the tumor. In Group C, consisting primarily of Stage IIa, IIIa, and IV patients (i.e., unresectable patients), a doubling of expected median survival to 12 months could be achieved, compared to those in Group A, which achieved a median survival of only 6 months.