A late-breaking session at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) says that "Patients with colorectal cancer whose cancer has spread to the liver have improved survival without cancer recurrences when they receive chemotherapy prior to and following surgery, compared to those treated with surgery only."
Adjuvant chemotherapy is when chemo is used after surgery. Neoadjuvant treatment is when chemotherapy is given to shrink the tumor to allow for better surgical removal.
The second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States is colorectal cancer. Liver metastasis is common among patients with advanced disease. A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the use of chemotherapy before and after surgery compared to surgery alone. The trial included 364 patients who were divided into two treatment groups.
At nearly four years' followup, recurrence-free survival was 42.4 percent for patients receiving chemotherapy before and after surgery, compared with only 33.2 percent for those treated with surgery only.
