[Histopathological growth patterns of liver metastases]

According to current knowledge, histopathological growth patterns of liver metastases carry prognostic significance; however, they do not yet have therapeutic implications in clinical practice. The existing literature has predominantly focused on liver metastases originating from colorectal carcinomas, and to date, only two studies have investigated histopathological growth patterns in consecutively collected patient cohorts. Our aim was to study the histopathological growth patterns of all patients with liver metastases between 2011 and 2016 in a consecutive manner. Clinicopathological features were extracted from the medical records of the cases included in the study period. Histological slides of the metastases were evaluated by an expert gastrointestinal pathologist. Statistical analyses were carried out by using the Kruskal–Wallis and Fisher’s exact test. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate progression-free survival, overall survival and time-to-progression curves, and the log-rank test was applied to compare survival curves. All statistical tests were two-sided, and p-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Altogether 41 patients were included in our study. The majority were diagnosed with colorectal adenocarcinoma primary tumor (n = 32). Replacement pattern proved to be the most common (n = 22), followed by desmoplastic (n = 15), and pushing (n = 4). There was no significant association found between histopathological growth patterns and stage (p = 0.105), secondary tumour focality (p = 0.898), largest diameter primary (p = 0.316) and secondary carcinoma (p = 0.441), completeness of resection (p = 0.492), and the presence of venous spread (p = 1). There were no significant results found between histopathological growth patterns and progression-free survival (p = 0.417), overall survival (p = 0.297), and time-to-progression (p = 0.267). Our results suggest that the prognostic value of histopathological growth patterns may be limited in a consecutively collected patient cohort. Further studies regarding the prognostic utility of histopathological growth patterns have to be carried out in the future. Orv Hetil. 2025; 166(34): 1323–1332.