Perioperative Chemotherapy for Liver Metastasis of Colorectal Cancer

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Survival outcomes for resectable metastatic colorectal cancer have improved over the past decade. This is due in part to improvements made in imaging technology, locoregional treatment, and systemic treatment. The focus of this review is to summarize and analyze the existing information available on systemic therapy in the setting of colorectal cancer with liver metastases. It is written with structured viewpoints including patient selection, sequencing of treatment, choice of systemic therapy for upfront resectable disease and conversion chemotherapy for unresectable colorectal cancer. Post-treatment surveillance and future research directions are also discussed. This review will help treating physicians make decisions for the treatment of liver metastases of colorectal cancer. ABSTRACT: The liver is the dominant site of metastasis for patients with colorectal cancer. For those with isolated liver metastases, surgical resection with systemic therapy has led to long-term remission in as high as 80% of patients in well-selected cohorts. This review will focus on how systemic therapy should be integrated with resection of liver metastases; in particular, the use of clinical risk scores based on clinicopathological features that help with patient selection, various approaches to the treatment of micro-metastatic disease (peri-operative versus post-operative chemotherapy), as well as conversion chemotherapy for those with initially upfront unresectable disease will be discussed.