Liver-directed therapeutic approaches, e.g. resection or hepatic arterial infusion (HAI), have not been widely used in patients with gastric cancer liver metastases because of frequent presence of extrahepatic disease, and the published experience is scanty. We performed a pooled analysis of reports of HAI in gastric cancer liver metastases.Reports on HAI in gastric cancer liver metastases were identified though searching the MEDLINE database.
A total of 47 reports of 192 patients were included in the pooled analysis. The survival was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier method.
Univariate analysis was performed by the log-rank test, and multivariable analysis was performed by the Cox regression method. HAI may be effective in the rare patient with isolated gastric cancer liver metastases.
The prognosis is significantly better in patients who attained an objective response, H1 or H2 metastases, and in patients treated with anthracyclines.