Purpose
Surgery is the mainstay treatment for colorectal cancer and offers a long‐term survival benefit for patients with liver metastases; however, the appropriate approach remains debatable. We aimed to systematically review and perform a meta‐analysis of liver‐first and classical (colon‐first) approaches.
Methods
The following electronic databases were searched for systematic literature: PubMed and the Cochrane Library. Studies that compared patients with liver metastases due to colorectal cancer and who underwent liver‐first and classical resections were selected. Primary outcomes were long‐term overall survival and disease‐free survival, and secondary outcomes were perioperative morbidity and mortality.
Results
Over 12 studies with 6344 patients were analysed; of the total patients, 1141 and 4552 underwent liver‐first resection and classical resection, respectively. The meta‐analysis showed no significant difference between the liver‐first resection group and classical resection group in terms of overall morbidity (risk ratio [RR] 1.26, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91‐1.74) and 90‐day mortality (RR 1.26, 95% CI 0.52‐3.04, P = .23). The classical resection group showed favourable overall survival and disease‐free survival than the liver‐first resection group in the nonpropensity score‐matched studies (RR 1.19, 95% CI 1.09‐1.3) but showed comparable results in the propensity score‐matched studies (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.97‐1.18).
Conclusions
The perioperative and long‐term outcomes of the liver‐first and classical approaches were comparable. Selection of the appropriate approach that will be used for a patient depends on the characteristics of the primary colorectal tumour and the occurrence of liver metastases.