Factors influencing survival in 33 patients undergoing resection of hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the factors influencing the prognosis of patients undergoing resection of hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer.


METHODS
Between December 1981 and March 1998, 33 patients underwent potentially curative hepatic resection for metastatic colorectal cancer at the Kiryu Kousei General Hospital. We retrospectively examined 15 factors, including 3 clinical factors, 5 primary tumor characteristics and 7 metastatic tumor characteristics. Survival rates were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the weighting of each factor was compared by the log-rank test. We used univariate and multivariate analyses to assess any associations between the factors and mortality.


RESULTS
The 30-day operative mortality was 0%. The 5-yr survival rate of the 33 patients was 43%. A significant survival advantage was noted in patients with 1 or 2 metastatic lesions (25/33, 76%), patients who underwent systematic anatomical resection (14/33, 42%) and male patients (16/33, 48%), compared with patients with 3 or more lesions (50% and 17%, P = 0.021), patients who underwent non-systematic resection (67% and 23%, P = 0.005) and female patients (65% and 20%, P = 0.011), respectively. No statistical influence on survival was found in the multivariate analysis of these 3 factors. Recurrence was identified in 24 patients (73%) and 19 of them died of recurrent cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
Surgical resection of hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer is safe and potentially curative in appropriately selected patients.
Fujii
K
K
Department of Surgery, Kiryu Kousei General Hospital, Gunma Prefecture, Japan.
Fujioka
S
S
Kato
K
K
Machiki
Y
Y
Kutsuna
Y
Y
Ishikawa
A
A
Takamizawa
J
J
Mizutani
T
T
Ko
K
K
Yoshida
K
K
D000368:Aged; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000556:secondary / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis
D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen