[Evaluation of cases of metastatic liver tumors resected following intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy].

: We encountered four cases whose unresectable metastatic liver tumors could be resected by operation after intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy using an implantable reservoir. Metastatic lesions were thus markedly reduced and localized. Three cases were metastases of colorectal cancer and one of gastric cancer. All cases of liver metastases were synchronous and more than H2 stage. In these cases, metastatic lesions were reduced at an early stage of this chemotherapy after resection of the primary lesions. Resection of metastases was carried out from 4 to 14 months after the first operation. Effects of this chemotherapy were also observed histologically; necrosis and fibrosis were found in the cancer nest, which paralleled the reduction in tumor size. Our results indicate that this chemotherapy could be a neoadjuvant chemotherapy for unresectable metastatic liver tumors which may become resectable after this chemotherapy as seen in our cases. However, lung metastases and peritoneal dissemination influenced the prognosis of our cases. Treatment of extra-hepatic recurrence seemed important to improve the prognosis of these patients.