Synchronous resection for colorectal liver metastases: the future

Colorectal Cancer is a common malignancy. Many patients have metastatic disease at presentation and a significant proportion subsequently go onto develop metastatic disease, following surgery for the primary disease. Some groups advocate that synchronous metastatic disease should be resected at the same time as the primary, whereas others believe that outcomes are better following delayed resection for metastatic disease. The following review aims to outline the arguments in favour of both and to suggest some broad guidelines.