Abstract
Purpose To investigate whether perioperative hepatic arterial infusion pump chemotherapy (HAI) was associated with overall survival (OS) in patients who had a complete resection of colorectal liver metastases (CLM). Methods Patients who underwent a complete resection of CLM between 1992 and 2012 were included from a single-center prospectively maintained database. All patients who received HAI also received perioperative systemic chemotherapy. Propensity score analysis was used to match patients for seven known prognostic factors. Results A total of 2,368 consecutive patients underwent a complete resection of CLM, with a median follow-up of 55 months. The median OS for patients with HAI (n = 785) was 67 months versus 44 months without HAI (n = 1,583; P < .001), despite more advanced disease in the HAI group. OS at 10 years was 38.0% versus 23.8% without HAI. For patients who received modern systemic chemotherapy (n = 1,442), the median OS was 67 months with HAI and 47 months without HAI ( P < .001). The hazard ratio adjusted by propensity score demonstrated longer OS with HAI: 0.67 (95% CI, 0.59 to 0.76; P < .001). A pronounced difference in median OS was found for patients with node-negative colorectal cancer (129 months with HAI v 51 months without; P < .001) and a low clinical risk score of 0 to 2 points (89 months with HAI v 53 months without; P < .001). Conclusion Patients who received HAI had a median OS of approximately 2 years longer than patients without HAI. The strong association was independent of the use of modern systemic chemotherapy and remained in propensity score analysis. Patients with node-negative primary tumors or a low clinical risk score seemed to benefit most from HAI.