Management of liver metastases from colorectal cancer

About 50% of colorectal cancer patients develop liver metastasis, and liver resection is considered the only curative therapy. However, the rate of recurrence is high, which contributes to poor prognosis. Since surgical resection coverage has increased because of improved hepatectomy including portal vein embolization, tumors shrink because of the effectiveness of recent chemotherapy, such as FOLFOX and FOLFIRI, and it has become possible for many patients whose cancer was judged unresectable before to undergo resection. Improvement of new anticancer drugs such as molecularly targeted biologics is greatly changing therapeutic systems of metastatic colorectal cancer, and it is time for us to innovate stage IV therapy. In this report, we will review new treatment strategies for metastatic liver cancer from colorectal cancer, clinical trials of new anticancer drugs for liver metastasis, surgery and ablation as local therapy, and further clarify complex therapeutic systems for metastatic liver tumors from colorectal cancer.