Resection of Colorectal Liver Metastases

Introduction  

The gold-standard treatment for colorectal liver metastases (CLM) is liver resection. Advances in staging, surgical technique, perioperative care and systemic chemotherapy have contributed to steady improvement in oncologic outcomes for patients following surgery in this subset of patients with stage IV colorectal cancer. The limits of resection continue to expand to include patients with more, larger and bilateral CLM, yet outcomes continue to improve with 5-year overall survival exceeding 50% following resection. Chemotherapy is an important element of treatment for patients with CLM, and chemotherapy can be combined safely with surgery to improve outcomes further.