The Role of Major Hepatic Resections for Liver Metastases from Colorectal Cancer

Of the more than 120,000 new patients with colorectal cancer in 1982, at least 20% will develop liver metastases either at initial presentation or after treatment of the primary lesion. The median survival in such patients has been variously estimated at between five and nine months, and in spite of treatment by chemotherapeutic agents, only rarely do such patients survive five years. By contrast, patients who survive the longest after treatment of liver metastases from colorectal cancer have had major hepatic resections alone or combined with chemotherapy as part of their management. The present report describes five patients who were treated for liver metastases by anatomic hepatic lobectomy, either alone or combined with other treatment approaches