[Synchronous resection of colorectal cancer and liver metastasis]

Twenty percent of colorectal cancer patients present disease in both bowel and liver. Traditionally, bowel cancer was resected and patients then re-staged for liver resection. This brief review presents literature to evaluate the support for either synchronous or staged operation. No randomised controlled studies have been published, but recently published case control trials show that synchronous resection can be performed with low morbidity and mortality. The question of whether the synchronous procedure is better than the staged operation is a non-solved matter in literature.