Synchronous liver metastases and peritoneal carcinomatosis from colorectal cancer: different strategies for curative treatment?

Background: Management of patients with resectable hepatic metastases (HMs) and colorectal peritoneal carcinomatosis (CRPC) is not currently standardised.

Objective: The aims of this study were to evaluate the safety of cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (CRS/HIPEC) and hepatic surgery for patients with CRPC with synchronous hepatic metastases (HM), and its impact on survival rates.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed, including patients undergoing CRS/HIPEC for CRPC from 2007 to September 2016 in two groups, with (HM+) and without (HM-) synchronous hepatic metastases. Patients with extra-abdominal metastases were excluded. The hepatic strategy was described. Morbimortality and survival were compared between the two groups.

Results: One hundred nine patients underwent CRS/HIPEC for CRPC with or without hepatic surgery with curative intent: 33 patients with (HM+) and 76 patients without (HM-) synchronous HM. The median follow-up was 30 months. All patients with HM (HM+) received neoadjuvant chemotherapy vs. 88.1% in the HM- group (p = 0.04) associated with monoclonal antibody in 66.6% of cases in the HM+ group vs. 57% in the HM- group (p = 0.01). In the HM+ group, two steps were implemented to treat peritoneal and hepatic metastases in 15 patients (45%). In this group, planned hepatic resection in two procedures was performed for eight patients, all presenting bilobar HM. Postoperative morbidity did not differ between the two groups. No deaths occurred. Median overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were 31 and 65 months (p = 0.188), versus 21 and 24 months (p = 0.119), respectively, in the HM+ versus HM- groups. In multivariate analysis, the peritoneal cancer index (PCI) was the only significant prognostic factor whereas synchronous HM was not a significant prognostic factor.

Conclusion: Curative surgical treatment for CRPC with synchronous HM seems to be feasible and safe, and could facilitate long survival rates, compared to patients without HM. The hepatic strategy is not standardised. However, a "two-step" surgical strategy could be proposed in order to reduce postoperative morbidity rates.