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Does “Conversion Chemotherapy” Really Improve Survival in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients with Liver-Limited Disease?

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Abstract

Background

The clinical benefits of conversion chemotherapy followed by liver resection for initially unresectable colorectal liver metastases are still controversial. The criteria for unresectability vary from one team to another. To clarify this issue, we retrospectively assessed the survival and characteristics of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients with liver-limited disease (LLD) who underwent conversion therapy.

Method

Our criteria for resectability depended on the size of the remnant liver volume (>30 %) and expected function after removal of all metastases. Between December 2007 and September 2011, a total of 115 patients were diagnosed as having mCRC with LLD and received chemotherapy. Among them, 47 had tumors that were initially diagnosed as resectable. They underwent hepatic resection after chemotherapy (resected group). Of the 67 tumors were initially diagnosed as unresectable, 12 became resectable after chemotherapy (conversion group), leaving 55 tumors that remained unresectable after chemotherapy (unresected group).

Results

The median follow-up was 25.2 months. Hepatic resection was more invasive in the conversion group than in the resected group. Median disease-free survival was significantly higher in the resected group than in the conversion group (p = 0.013). Overall survival (OS) was also higher in the resected group, but the difference was not significant (p = 0.36). However, OS was significantly higher in the conversion group than in the unresected group (p = 0.034). Multivariate analysis of the resected and conversion groups showed that OS was significantly negatively influenced by abnormal carcinoembryonic antigen levels at surgery (p = 0.037) and a hospital stay >30 days (p = 0.009).

Conclusions

Our results showed that conversion chemotherapy could contribute to longer OS in mCRC patients with LLD.

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Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Osaka Red Cross Hospital, 5-30 Fudegasaki, Tennoji, Osaka, 543-8555, Japan

    K. Kataoka, A. Kanazawa, A. Nakajima & A. Arimoto

  2. Department of Surgery, Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan

    S. Iwamoto

  3. Department of Surgery, Kansai Rosai Hospital, Amagasaki, Japan

    T. Kato

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  1. K. Kataoka
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  2. A. Kanazawa
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  3. S. Iwamoto
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  4. T. Kato
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Correspondence to K. Kataoka.

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Kataoka, K., Kanazawa, A., Iwamoto, S. et al. Does “Conversion Chemotherapy” Really Improve Survival in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients with Liver-Limited Disease? . World J Surg 38, 936–946 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00268-013-2305-1

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