Hepatic arterial infusion for unresectable colorectal liver metastases combined or not with systemic chemotherapy.

Abstract BACKGROUND: The hypothesis was tested that systemic chemotherapy might contribute to improving overall survival (OS) of patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases treated with hepatic arterial infusion (HAI). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We considered 153 consecutive patients retrospectively divided into group A (n=72) treated with HAI alone (floxuridine [FUDR] + leucovorin [LV]), and group B (n=81) treated with HAI combined with systemic chemotherapy (5-fluorouracil [5FU] + LV). RESULTS: No significant difference in OS was observed between the two groups. Median OS was better in patients with <50% of liver involvement (21.3 vs. 13.2 months; p<0.0001) and in responders vs. non-responders (24.4 vs. 13.4 months; p