Rate of growth of intraabdominal metastases from colorectal cancer

Abstract

Monitoring the progression or regression of intraabdominal metastatic disease is required for knowledgeable management of chemotherapeutic regimens designed to treat metastases. Computerized tomography (CT) and CT with EOE‐13, a liver contrast agent, allowed precise measurement of metastatic disease. The tumor doubling time of colorectal metastases in four patients was determined from serial CT scans of individual patients. Tumor doubling times of untreated patients varied from 50 to 95 days, and were in the same range for hepatic, lymph node, or intraperitoneal metastatic disease. These data may indicate that metastatic disease of colorectal cancer progresses at a faster rate in the peritoneal cavity than is reported for colorectal cancer metastatic to the lungs. The response to chemotherapy or progression of disease was also determined in treated patients. High resolution CT scanning with EOE‐13 allowed calculation of tumor doubling times, and therefore more precise management of cancer patients with metastases.

Pre-hepatectomy prognostic staging to determine treatment strategy for colorectal cancer metastases to the liver

“…T-DT was calculated by the expression: log 2/3[(T 2 T 1 )/(log D 2 log D 1 )], where T 1 and T 2 are time and D 1 and D 2 are tumor diameter at any two time points in the clinical course prior to hepatectomy. CEA-DT was calculated by the expression, log 2[(T 2 T 1 )/(log C 2 log C 1 )], where T is time and C is CEA concentration, as previously reported [10][11][12][13][14]. We have shown that T-DT of the hepatic metastasis is highly correlated with the CEA-DT in patients with no extrahepatic metastases [14]; T-DT does not correlate with CEA-DT when extrahepatic metastases are present [13].…”

Liver transplantation for neuroendocrine tumors

“…Certainly the liver is a "fertile field" for these tumors, and the observation that liver metastases typically grow faster and larger than their primary progenitors is supported by experimental evidence. 22,23 The adequacy of primary tumor control should be assessed. Ideally the primary tumor will have been identified and resected in potential transplant candidates.…”

Small (<20 mm) Enhancing Hepatic Nodules Seen on Arterial Phase MR Imaging of the Cirrhotic Liver: Clinical Implications

“…One radiologist measured the nodule size. The average size was calculated from the greatest two dimensions in the left to right and anterior to posterior axes (measured from axial images), as described by Havelaar et al [14]. To test reproducibility of the data, subsequent measurements of tumor diameter were repeated successively three times on one patient during one of his follow-up studies.…”