[Surgical therapy of liver metastases secondary to colorectal neoplasms]

Of the therapeutic aids currently available for the treatment of liver metastases, surgical treatment, when possible, has acquired an irreplaceable role. The exact criteria needed to establish a correct indication still have to be established. Various factors have been examined so far: number, site, dimensions of the metastases and features of the primary tumour whose prognostic importance does not lend itself to unequivocable interpretation. Personal experience of a series of 11 surgically treated cases seems to confirm that of the parameters analysed, the tumour-host relationship remains the most important prognostic factor.