title: Liver resection for metastatic gastric cancer: experience with 42 patients including eight long-term survivors.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The indication for liver resection for gastric metastases remains controversial and few previous studies have reported the outcome of surgery in the treatment of liver metastases of gastric cancer. The aim of this study is to clarify the effectiveness of surgical resection for liver metastases arising from gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis was performed on the outcome of 42 consecutive patients with synchronous (n = 20) or metachronous (n = 22) gastric liver metastases that were curatively resected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall 1, 3 and 5 year survival rates after hepatic resection were 76, 48 and 42%, respectively, and the median survival was 34 months. Univariate analysis revealed that survival significantly differed between cases of solitary and multiple metastases (P = 0.03). Multivariate analysis revealed that solitary liver metastasis and the absence of serosal invasion by primary gastric cancer were favorable independent prognostic factors (P = 0.005 and P = 0.02, respectively). All eight patients who survived for more than 5 years after initial hepatectomy had a solitary metastasis, and six of these had no serosal invasion by the primary gastric cancer. No patient with multiple metastatic diseases survived beyond 3 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with a solitary liver metastasis are good candidates for surgical resection, whereas those with multiple gastric liver metastases should be treated by multimodal approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastrointenstinal Surgery, Cancer Institute Hospital, 3-10-6 Ariake, Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-8550, Japan. rintaro.koga@jfcr.or.jp
authors.forename: Rintaro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koga
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Shigekazu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ohyama
authors.forename: Akio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saiura
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Seto
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate