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Liver transplant added to chemotherapy improves survival in advanced colorectal cancer
The incidence of colorectal cancer continues to rise worldwide. Colorectal cancers originate in the bowel but have the potential to spread or metastasize to other organs. The most common site of spread of colorectal cancer is the liver and to date the most effective treatment for this surgery is to remove the liver, usually in combination with chemotherapy. Unfortunately, only twenty percent of people with liver metastases from colorectal cancer will be able to have surgery to remove the cancer. To date there have been no other treatments that offer a potential cure for people with liver metastases that cannot be surgically removed.
In this clinical trial people with liver metastases from colorectal cancer that are unable to be removed with surgery were randomized to receive either liver transplant and chemotherapy or chemotherapy alone. Promisingly, those patients who underwent liver transplantation had better survival rates compared with those who did not. The combination of liver transplantation and chemotherapy may offer a potential cure to those people who would otherwise have a poor long-term outcome.
Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(24)00187-1/fulltext