Surgical management of hepatic metastases of colorectal origin

Colorectal cancer is the most frequent digestive cancer. Prognosis is greatly depending on the TNM stage at the time of diagnosis. Fifty percent of all patients shall develop, synchronous- ly or metachronously, liver metastases. Different means such as chemotherapy, targeted therapies, radiofrequency ablation, portal vein embolization and two-stage hepatectomy may be used to make these metastases eventually resectable and to increase overall sur- vival. This is a short review of these different methods used to increase resectability but also on the integration of these parame- ters in a larger approach of colorectal liver metastasis surgery especially insisting on multidisciplinary discussion. (Acta gastro- enterol. belg., 2009, 72, 321-326).