[Strategy of liver resection during chemotherapy for otherwise unresectable colorectal metastases]

With multidisciplinary management of patients with effective chemotherapy that can downstage metastases, more patients with previously inoperable disease can benefit from surgery. Surgery in isolation may be approaching technical limits, but now is likely to help more patients because of success of complementary strategies, particularly newer chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Leaving behind disappearing metastases after chemotherapy, margin-positive resection, staged liver resection, and liver-first reversed management permit potentially curative surgery for patients previously unable to survive resection. Further, survival benefit from maximum debulking surgery, like ovarian cancer, for colorectal liver metastases is uncertain at present, but likely. Individualized multidisciplinary treatment planning using such strategies is essential.