An update on chemotherapy of colorectal liver metastases

Surgical resection of liver metastases of colorectal cancer greatly improves the clinical outcome of patients with advanced disease. Developments in chemotherapeutic agents and strategies bring hope of a cure to patients with initially unresectable colorectal liver metastases (CLM). Perioperative chemotherapy significantly improves the survival time of patients who receive curative-intent hepatectomy. Even for unresectable CLM, recent studies demonstrated that active preoperative chemotherapy could achieve shrinkage of liver metastasis and thus render some for resection. Furthermore, an increase in tumor resection rate and prolonged survival time among patients with CLM has been observed following the application of monoclonal antibodies in recent years. However, the value of chemotherapy via hepatic arterial infusion is still unclear. More trials should be conducted in patients with CLM in order to improve survival. (C) 2012 Baishideng. All rights reserved.