Local ablation therapy adjunct to radical hepatectomy in treating multiple bilobar colorectal cancer metastases

Abstract

We investigated efficacy of microwave ablation plus hepatectomy for multiple colorectal liver metastases. Clinicopathologic data were analyzed retrospectively for 71 consecutive patients with four or more bilobar liver metastases from colorectal cancer who underwent hepatectomy with or without microwave ablation. Overall, no significant differences were found and as well as disease-free survival between 19 patients with resection/ablation and 52 patients with resection (p = 0.18 and 0.93). Multivariate analysis selected prehepatectomy carcinoembryonic antigen concentration in serum as an independent prognosticator for survival (p = 0.04), but not resection/ablation vs. resection. In the patients with combined resection/ablation, recurrences occurred near the resection or ablation line in only 3 patient (30%, although multiple tumors (≥ 4) were the most common liver recurrence pattern (60%). Microwave ablation plus hepatic resection expanded indications for surgery to treat multiple bilobar liver metastases.