Operative salvage for retroperitoneal nodal recurrence in colorectal cancer: a systematic review

Retroperitoneal nodal recurrence after curative resection of colorectal cancer is an uncommon and challenging problem. The evidence for salvage surgery is limited and remains controversial, particularly when major vascular structures are involved. Some reports have demonstrated a survival benefit after metachronous resection of retroperitoneal metastasis with and without concomitant aortic resection. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to find evidence in favor of or against salvage surgery.

Electronic searches of the MEDLINE, Cochrane, and EMBASE database were performed. Additional papers were identified by a manual search of the references from the key articles. Only peer-reviewed articles published in the English language were evaluated.

A total of nine suitable studies were identified: three case reports and six larger series, of which one was a case-control study. Including our case reports, the total number of patients who underwent surgical resection that are available for review was 110. Median overall survival was between 34 and 44 months and median disease-free survival between 17 and 21 months. Concomitant resection of major vessels with graft replacement was feasible with survival ranging from 19 months to 18 years. There was no reported mortality associated with surgical salvage of retroperitoneal recurrence and the overall morbidity was 17-33%.

The current literature suggests that more aggressive surgical treatment of retroperitoneal nodal recurrence in CRC has acceptable morbidity and may be associated with an improved survival in well-selected patients.