Prognostic factors influencing survival of patients with advanced colorectal cancer: hepatic-artery infusion versus systemic intravenous chemotherapy for liver metastases.

In this study of 232 patients with histologically confirmed large bowel carcinoma, patient- and tumor-related characteristics were examined and their effect on prognosis was determined. Serum alkaline phosphatase and albumin concentrations, symptom duration prior to diagnosis of the primary tumor, and the status of the primary tumor showed the strongest relationship to survival after diagnosis of surgically noncurable disease. Patients who had normal serum alkaline phosphatase and albumin concentrations, patients whose symptoms lasted over 12 months before diagnosis, and patients whose primary tumor had been resected before diagnosis of noncurable disease had a good prognosis. Performance status, weight loss, sex, presence of liver metastasis, hemoglobin concentration, and absolute lymphocyte or monocyte counts in the peripheral blood, at time of diagnosis of surgically noncurable disease, were significant factors when examined individually. One hundred seventy-nine patients with metastatic colorectal cancer confined to the liver were selected from 601 patients who received chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer over 10-year periods to compare the efficacy of hepatic-artery infusion therapy with that of intravenous 5-fluoropyrimidine--containing chemotherapy. The two groups were similar with respect to prognostic factors. The hepatic-artery infusion chemotherapy produced a higher response rate than intravenous chemotherapy, but did not result in significant prolongation of survival.