Liver resections in metastatic gastric cancer

BackgroundThe 5-year survival of patients receiving standard-of-care chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer (MGC) to the liver is 5 years.ResultsNineteen studies reported on 436 patients. Median 5-year survival was 26.5% (range: 0–60%). Overall, 13.4% (48/358) of patients were alive at 5 years and studies with extended follow-up reported that 4.0% (7/174) of patients survived for >10 years. Overall in-hospital mortality was 3.5% (12/340 patients); however, the median mortality rate across the studies was 0%. No prognostic factor was found to be consistently statistically significant across these small studies.ConclusionsDespite the limitations of any analysis of retrospective data for highly selected groups of patients, it would appear that liver resections combined with systemic therapy for MGC can result in prolonged survival.