Background: Surgical indication for stage IV colorectal cancer patients with bilobar hepatic metastases may be controversial.
Methods: Retrospective cohort analysis was performed using data of 200 patients who underwent surgical resections for synchronous metastases of colorectal cancer between 1990 and 2005. Of these, 80 patients had solitary, 43 had unilobar multiple, and 77 had bilobar metastases. Prognostic factors of the 77 bilobar metastases were evaluated using multivariate analysis. The survival was compared with that of 95 patients undergoing chemotherapy for unresectable bilobar hepatic metastases.
Results: Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that the number of metastasis (≥6) [relative risk (RR), 2.7; P = 0.002] and depth of invasion (T4) (RR, 2.0; P = 0.04) were predictors of survival of the 77 patients. The survival of 11 T4 cancer patients with six or more metastases was poor, but significantly better than that of 95 patients with unresectable bilobar metastases (P = 0.04).
Conclusion: Surgical resection in stage IV colorectal cancer patients having bilobar hepatic metastases was justified in the present setting.
2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.