Australian experience of cryoablation of liver tumors: metastases.

The authors' clinical experience of treating almost exclusively inoperable liver malignancy in 149 patients by cryotherapy is reviewed. There was only one 30-day death; morbidity was modest. Postoperative carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) changes were extremely predictive of outcome in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer. For the group in which CEA levels returned to the normal range, median survival exceeded 1000 days. In addition, the authors reported encouraging results with cryotherapy as an adjunct to resection.