The mainstays of treatment for colorectal liver metastases (CRLMs) are surgery and chemotherapy. Chemotherapeutic benefits of tumor shrinkage and systemic control of micrometastases are in part counterbalanced by chemotoxicity that can modify the liver parenchyma, jeopardizing the detection of CRLM. This review addresses the clinical decision‐making process in the context of radiographic and pathologic responses, the preoperative imaging workup, and the approaches to the liver for CRLM, which disappear after systemic chemotherapy.
Objective To determine the overall survival of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and evaluate factors that impact prognosis in a private cancer center.Methods Data from the Hospital Cancer Registry at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein were retrospectively collected. The patients enrolled had metastatic cancer at diagnosis or earlier staging and subsequent recurrence. Cases of neuroendocrine tumors were excluded.Results A total of 65 patients were evaluated, including 63 with adenocarcinoma. The median overall survival for patients in all stages was 20.7 months (95%CI: 15.6-25.7), while the overall survival of metastatic disease was 13.3 months. Among the 33 cases with stage IV cancer, there was no evidence of a statistically significant association between median survival and CA19-9 dosage (p=0.212), tumor location (p=0.482), first treatment performed (p=0.337), lymphovascular invasion (p=0.286), and age (p=0.152). However, the number of lines of chemotherapy was significantly associated with survival (log-rank p=0.013), with an estimated median survival of 10.2 months for patients who received up to two lines of treatment and 23.5 months for those receiving more than two lines of chemotherapy.Conclusion The survival of patients treated was longer than that reported in the literature. The only statistically significant factor related to increased survival was higher number of lines of chemotherapy received. We believe that the higher socioeconomic status of patients surveyed in this study, as well as their greater access to treatment options, may have influenced their overall survival.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.