[Surgical treatment of liver metastases and liver cancer]

Hepatic resection is the golden standard in treatment of tumours from primary liver cancer and colorectal liver metastases, but is appropriate for a variety of other benign and malignant tumours in the liver. The selection of patients and criteria are discussed. Curative liver surgery is a prerequisite for treatment, whereas the size, number and localization of the tumours do not affect operability per se, but the prognosis is influenced by these factors. Surgical strategies, techniques and adjuvant chemotherapy are discussed. Recurrence or newly-evolved tumours can be treated.