Retrospective analysis of clinical and pathologic risk factors in liver resection for hepatic colorectal metastases

Abstract

To analyze the clinical and pathologic risk factors of surgical treatment for liver metastases from colorectal cancer. The data on 98 patients who underwent liver resection for hepatic colorectal metastases were collected and analyzed retrospectively. Overall 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates after hepatectomy for metastases were 94.6%, 45.0%, and 22.3%, respectively. Gender, pathologic primary tumor stage, histologic differentiation, size of metastatic tumor, and type of metastases were not statistically significant prognostic factors (P > 0.05). The 5-year survival rate was significantly lower in patients with lymph node metastases from the primary site than that in patients without lymph node metastases (14.1% vs. 39.5%, P = 0.013); survival rate in patients with vascular invasion from the primary tumor was also significantly lower than in those without invasion (10.2% vs. 49.0%, P = 0.032). The survival rate in patients who had unilobar metastases was higher than that in patients who had bilobar metastases (25.3% vs. 0%, P = 0.012). The 5-year survival rates in solitary metastasis, two to three metastases, and with the transfer number ≥4 were 29.1%, 14.4%, and 0%, respectively (P = 0.019). Multivariate analysis revealed resection margin, distribution of metastases, and the number of metastases as the independent risk factors associated with the overall survival rates (P = 0.044, 0.037, and 0.005, respectively). Surgical resection may be the only treatment modality for the cure of colorectal liver metastases. Negative resection margin, metastases confined to unilobar type, and number of metastases ≤3 are associated with better prognosis.