Transarterial perfusion of liver metastases

Progressive growth of unresectable metastatic or primary malignancies confined to the liver is a significant clinical problem. Approximately 25% of patients with colorectal cancer will develop metastatic disease exclusively or largely confined to liver, the vast majority of which are not amenable to surgical resection. Despite aggressive systemic or regional chemotherapy, survival is only 12 to 18 months. More than 80% of patients with ocular melanoma develop liver metastases as the first site of recurrent disease, and death from hepatic disease progression typically occurs 2 to 7 months after diagnosis. In addition, the liver is also the preferred site of metastatic disease for gastrointestinal or pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. A number of physiological and anatomic features of the liver make it an ideal organ for regionally directed therapy to allow dose intensification to the cancer-burdened area while reducing or eliminating unnecessary systemic toxicity. To that end, complete vascular isolation and perfusion of the liver using a recirculating extracorporeal circuit, also called isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP), has been under clinical evaluation at our institution and others. In this article, we review the current results with IHP and its potential utility in the treatment of patients with unresectable hepatic malignancies.