Trans-arterial chemoperfusion for the treatment of liver metastases of breast cancer and colorectal cancer: Clinical results in palliative care patients.

AIM

To evaluate the clinical value and efficiency of trans-arterial chemoperfusion (TACP) in patients with liver metastases from breast cancer (BC) and colorectal cancer (CRC).

METHODS

We treated 36 patients with liver metastases of BC (n = 19, 19 females) and CRC (n = 17; 8 females, 9 males) with repeated TACP. The treatment interval was 4 wk. TACP was performed with gemcitabine (1000 mg/m) and mitomycin (10 mg/m), administered within 1 h after positioning the catheter tip in the hepatic artery. Before treatment, the size, location, tumour volume, vascularization and number of liver tumours were evaluated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Tumour response was evaluated according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors guidelines.

RESULTS

TACP using gemcitabine and mitomycin for metastases from CRC and BC was performed without any serious side effects. The follow-up MRI showed a therapeutic response in 84.2% of the BC patients - stable disease 47.4% and partial response 36.8%. A progression was seen in 15.8%. CRC patients showed a therapeutic response in 52.9% of cases. A progression of the disease was documented in 47.1% of the patients with CRC. These data show that TACP in patients with liver metastases of BC leads to a significantly better therapeutic response compared with CRC patients ( = 0.042). The median survival time was 13.2 mo for the BC patients, which is significantly longer than for CRC patients at 9.3 mo ( = 0.001).

CONCLUSION

TACP for liver metastases of BC appears to be a safe and effective palliative treatment with improved outcomes in comparison to patients with CRC.