Decision Making for Patients With Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases

Excerpt

Ten years ago, decision strategies concerning the treatment of patients with colorectal liver metastases were fairly academic, and these treatments were relatively cheap. Now, combination therapy that uses chemotherapy and biotherapy with radical liver surgery is becoming the norm, but there are complex multiple variables that will determine appropriate strategies. These variables include the extent of liver disease, resectable extrahepatic disease, response to prior chemotherapy, the role of adjuvant chemotherapy, and which regimen(s) are used, alone or in combination. Furthermore, modern multimodal therapy now costs in excess of $200,000 for each patient, and the overall 5-year survival for all patients with liver-only disease still does not exceed 20%. …