Primary Tumor Location Is a Prognostic Factor for Intrahepatic Progression-Free Survival in Patients with Colorectal Liver Metastases Undergoing Portal Vein Embolization as Preparation for Major Hepatic Surgery

Lea Hitpass; Daniel Heise; Maximilian Schulze-Hagen; Federico Pedersoli; Florian Ulmer; Iakovos Amygdalos; Peter Isfort; Ulf Neumann; Christiane Kuhl; Philipp Bruners; Markus Zimmermann

doi:10.3390/cancers12061638

Primary Tumor Location Is a Prognostic Factor for Intrahepatic Progression-Free Survival in Patients with Colorectal Liver Metastases Undergoing Portal Vein Embolization as Preparation for Major Hepatic Surgery

Cancers (Basel). 2020 Jun 20;12(6):1638. doi: 10.3390/cancers12061638.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Pauwelsstrasse 30, D-52074 Aachen, Germany.
² Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Pauwelsstrasse 30, D-52074 Aachen, Germany.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify prognostic factors affecting intrahepatic progression-free survival (ihPFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRCLM) undergoing portal vein embolization (PVE) and subsequent (extended) right hemihepatectomy. A total of 59 patients (mean age: 60.8 ± 9.3 years) with CRCLM who underwent PVE in preparation for right hemihepatectomy were included. IhPFS and OS after PVE were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between the following factors and survival: patient age, laterality of the colorectal cancer (right- versus left-sided), tumor location (colon versus rectal cancer), time of occurrence of hepatic metastases (synchronous versus metachronous), baseline number and size of hepatic metastases, presence or absence of metastases in the future liver remnant (FLR) before PVE, preoperative carcinoembryogenic antigen (CEA) levels, time between PVE and surgery, history of neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy, and the presence or absence of extrahepatic disease before PVE. Median follow up was 18 months. The median ihPFS was 8.2 months (95% confidence interval: 6.2-10.2 months), and median OS was 34.1 months (95% confidence interval: 27.3-40.9 months). Laterality of the primary colorectal cancer was the only statistically significant predictor of ihPFS after PVE (hazard ratio (HR) = 2.242; 95% confidence interval: 1.125, 4.465; p = 0.022), with patients with right-sided colorectal cancer having significantly shorter median ihPFS than patients with left-sided cancer (4.0 ± 1.9 months versus 10.2 ± 1.5 months; log rank test: p = 0.018). Other factors, in particular also the presence or absence of additional metastases in the FLR, were not associated with intrahepatic progression-free survival. The presence of extrahepatic disease was associated with worse OS (HR = 3.050, 95% confidence interval: 1.247, 7.459; p = 0.015).

Keywords: colorectal cancer; liver metastases; portal vein embolization; survival.