Abstract
Over 50% of patients with colorectal cancer develop metastatic disease. Although systemic
therapy remains the backbone of palliative treatment, select patients may be candidates
for surgical resection with curative intent. Given increasing evidence of the association
between metastasectomy and prolonged survival, surgery has acquired an increasingly
central role in the management of liver, lung, and peritoneal metastases. This is
compounded by accumulating advances in local and systemic treatments that have allowed
for expansion of the resectability pool, bringing the potential for curative surgical
treatment to increasing numbers of patients with stage IV disease. However, as the
boundaries of resectability are pushed, patient selection and consideration of tumor-related
and technical factors are imperative to the identification of patients for whom surgery
would be of the greatest benefit.
Keywords
colorectal cancer - metastasis - resection - survival
