Long term results of trial for patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer
Prof. Bernard Nordlinger of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Ambroise Paré, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Université de Versailles, Boulogne- Billancourt, France, and member of the EORTC Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Group says, "Surgery is currently the only potentially curative treatment for resectable liver metastases, yet only 15-20% of patients with hepatic metastases are initially eligible for a radical surgical treatment. Furthermore, less than one half of patients who do receive such treatment achieve 5-year survival after resection. This is likely due to the presence of residual disease, so it is thought that adjuvant chemotherapy could help these patients." EORTC intergroup trial 40983 recruited 364 patients between the ages of 18-80 years with colorectal cancer and up to four liver metastases. …