Objectives - To evaluate long-term survival of patients resected for primarily unresectable colorectal liver metastases downstaged by systemic chemotherapy. Methods - Among a group of 82 patients with advanced colorectal cancer, 39 had unresectable liver metastases. After treatment with systemic 3-weekly 5FU/folinic acid/oxaliplatin chemotherapy, the outcome of 11 patients made resectable thanks to chemotherapy was compared to that of 28 patients who were not. Criteria for non-resectability consisted of diffuse bilobar invasion with inability to achieve complete resection, unilobar or bilobar invasion plus vascular extension (invasion of inferior vena cava or 2 suprahepatic veins plus continuity with the 3(rd)) or involvment of hepatic pedicle. Before and after surgery, CT scan evaluation was performed every 2 months. Progression free survival was defined as the time between starting chemotherapy and recurrence of the disease. We used Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank test for comparisons, P values were two-sided and considered significant if < 0.05. Results - Progression free survival times were 14 and 6 months, median overall survival were 60 and 18.5 months, respectively, in favour of secondary resected subjects. Conclusion - Considering the magnitude of the survival benefit, one may question the need and feasibility for trials to assess more formally the impact of surgery in that setting.
