Comparison by carcinoembryonic antigen doubling time of hepatic injection and infusion for unresectable hepatic metastasis from colorectal cancer

Abstract

This study explored the efficacy of hepatic arterial therapy, comparing both injection and infusion of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in prolonging the survival of 92 patients with recurrent unresectable hepatic metastasis from colorectal cancer. With respect to pretreatment carcinoembryonic antigen doubling time (CEA-DT), 56 patients were treated with intra-arterial injection, and 36 with intra-arterial infusion. In 21 patients with a CEA-DT of less than 40 days, the cumulative survival of patients treated with arterial injection was significantly longer than that of patients treated with arterial infusion. In 45 patients with a CEA-DT of 40-80 days, the survival curves of patients did not differ from each other. Of the remaining 26 patients with a CEA-DT of more than 80 days, those treated using arterial infusion had an excellent prognosis, in contrast to those treated using arterial injection, with statistical significance. CEA-DT may be useful when choosing a chemotherapy regimen, and may help to accurately establish the prognosis of patients with unresectable hepatic metastasis from colorectal cancer.