Simultaneous curative resection may improve the long-term survival of patients diagnosed with colorectal liver metastases: A propensity score-matching study.

BACKGROUND

The benefit of simultaneous curative resection in patients with colorectal liver metastases has been unclear. Adjuvant chemotherapy is still considered an effective and priority treatment for advanced-stage colorectal patients.

METHODS

We retrospectively collected patients with colorectal liver metastases from January 2012 to October 2023 at the Guangxi Medical University Cancer Hospital. The baseline information was compared between a simultaneous curative resection group and a palliative treatment group. Propensity score matching with a 1:1 ratio was applied to develop comparable cohorts of curative resection and palliative treatment resection. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were performed to determine the impact of curative resection on survival of colorectal liver metastasis patients. Prognostic nomogram and a web-version calculator were developed based on the multivariate Cox regression method. Then, the concordance index (C-index), receiver operating characteristic, calibration plots, and decision curves analysis were applied to evaluate the prognostic performance of the nomogram.

RESULTS

A total of 716 patients with colorectal liver metastases were enrolled in the study, of whom 131 patients received curative resection. There was no significant difference in terms of baseline information between the curative resection group and the palliative treatment group after propensity score matching. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that curative resection was an independent prognostic factor affecting overall survival (P = .001, hazard ratio = 1.95, 95% confidence interval 1.30-2.91). Compared with patients who did not receive curative resection, patients who received simultaneous curative resection had a significant improvement in overall survival before and after propensity score matching (P < .0001 and P = .0047, respectively). Overall survival nomogram showed excellent predictive performance with the C-indexes of 0.686 (95% confidence interval 0.556-0.792). The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves were 0.75 (95% confidence interval 64.43-96.05), 0.75 (67.22-82.58), and 0.76 (66.10-85.98) for predicting 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival, respectively. The calibration plots and decision curves analysis also indicated the good predictability of the predictive nomogram. Finally, subgroup analysis further demonstrated a favorable impact of curative resection on overall survival in colorectal liver metastasis patients after propensity score matching.

CONCLUSIONS

Simultaneous curative resection may improve the overall survival of patients with colorectal liver metastases and is an independent and effective indicator for predicting overall survival. The nomogram may provide a personalized treatment strategy.