Distant Liver Metastases as a Major Factor Influencing Survival in Patients with Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Aim: To assess the eff ect of the factor 'hepatic metastatic disease' on long-term outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer. Materials and methods: We analysed retrospectively 200 randomly selected patients. Forty-two of them were excluded from the study for diff erent reasons so the study contingent was 158 patients over a period of 23 years. All were diagnosed and treated in the Lozenetz University Hospital, in the Department of General Surgery. 125 of the patients were diagnosed with colorectal cancer without distant metastases and 33 of the patients had liver metastases as a result of colorectal carcinoma. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 19 IMB, with a level of signifi cance of P < 0.05 at which the null hypothesis is rejected. We also used descriptive analysis, Kaplan-Meier estimator, Log-Rank Test and LifeTable statistics models. Results: The median survival for patients without metastases was 160 months, and the median was 102 months. The median survival for patients with liver metastases was 28 months and the median was 21 months. One-year survival for patients without metastases was 92% versus 69% in patients with liver metastases. Conclusion: Average, annual and median survivals are infl uenced statistically signifi cantly by the presence of liver metastases compared to overall survival and that of patients without metastatic colorectal cancer. Liver metastatic disease is a proven factor aff ecting long-term prognosis and survival in patients with colorectal cancer.

Synergistic Effects of Curcumin and 5-Fluorouracil on the Hepatocellular Carcinoma In vivo and vitro through regulating the expression of COX-2 and NF-κB

“…Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was one of the fifth major common cancers and accounted for 55% of the cases in the world [1][2][3][4][5]. HCC was easy to metastasize and difficult to diagnose in the early stage [6,7]. Furthermore, less than 20% patients with liver cancer could be treated through surgery [8].…”