Survival among patients with liver metastases from cancer of the colon and rectum.

Factors influencing spontaneous survival in 49 patients with liver metastases after cancer in colon/rectum were evaluated. In addition the same evaluation was performed in 12 patients treated with 5-Fluoro-uracil systemically of intraarterially in the hepatic artery. Alkaline phosphatases, elevated more than 4 times normal values, elevated serum alanine aminotransferase, or jaundice are all unfavorable prognostic signs in the spontaneous group. In the 5-Fluoro-uracil treated group only elevated serum dilirubin had the same unfavorable prognostic sign. Even though it seems to be an increased survival time in the 5-Fluoro-uracil treated group it is concluded that metastases to the liver from cancer in colon/rectum assume to be more or less resistent to 5-Fluoro-uracil.