Local interventions for colorectal cancer metastases to liver and lung

Colorectal cancer is a common cause of cancer-related deaths. About 1/3 of all cases present with distant metastasis, with the liver as the leading site and the lung as the most common extra-abdominal site.

It was aimed to evaluate the clinical characteristics and the outcomes of colorectal cancer patients with liver or lung metastasis who had received local treatments.

This is a retrospective, cross-sectional, and descriptive study. The study was performed with colorectal cancer patients that referred to the medical oncology clinic of a university hospital between December 2013 and August 2021.

A total number of 122 patients who have received local treatments were included. Radiofrequency ablation was applied in 32 patients (26.2%), metastasis was surgically resected in 84 patients (68.9%), and stereotactic body radiotherapy was preferred in six patients (4.9%). At the first follow-up control after completion of local or multimodal treatment, no residual tumor was determined with radiological assessment in 88 patients (72.1%). The median progression-free survival (16.7 months vs 9.7 months) (p = .000) and the median overall survival (37.3 months vs 25.5 months) (p = .004) of these patients were significantly better than the patients with residual disease.

Local interventions that are applied to highly selected patients may improve the survival of metastatic colorectal cancer patients. A close follow-up after local therapies is important to diagnose recurrent disease because repeated local interventions may be possible to achieve better outcomes.