Comparative efficacy of antitumor treatment for liver metastases from colorectal cancer.

A retrospective study of 37 colorectal cancer patients with synchronous liver metastases was made. Of these patents, 6 who had undergone primary tumor removal were treated with considerable success by hepatic arterial infusion of 5-FU and mitomycin C. Ten patients who underwent primary tumor excision were treated by oral chemotherapy using fluorinated pyrimidines. These patients survived about 23 months. On the other hand, 12 patients after primary tumor removal without cancer chemotherapy survived for about 10 months. Six patients without antitumor treatment for both primary tumor and hepatic metastasis survived about 5.2 months. The overall results of this study suggest that intrahepatic arterial infusion is of practical importance for hepatic metastases from colorectal cancer and that oral chemotherapy is indeed effective for selected patients.