Surgery for Colorectal Cancer Metastatic to the Liver: Optimizing the Results of Treatment

The databases of the Hepatic Metastases Registry and the University of Erlangen, which together encompass nearly 1000 patients who have undergone hepatic resection of colorectal cancer metastases, are reviewed. Important prognostic factors are the presence or absence of extrahepatic disease, the size of the tumor-free margin in the liver, the stage of the primary tumor, the disease-free interval between resection of the primary and the appearance of hepatic metastases, and the preoperative serum concentration of carcinoembryonic antigen. The distribution of multiple metastases, the patient’s age, the size of the largest hepatic metastasis, the patient’s gender, and the site of the primary tumor are not significant.