What Are the Treatments for Colorectal Cancer That Has Spread to the Liver?

According to the website Medline Plus, colon cancer is one of the more deadly types of cancer in the United States, resulting in more deaths than any other type. If left untreated, colon cancer will eventually spread throughout the body to other tissues and organs. This process is called metastasis, and when it occurs, the survival rate for colon cancer drops to a relatively low 8 percent. Treatments for colon cancer that has spread to the liver mostly consists of methods to increase patient comfort while slowing the disease as much as possible.

Treatment Goals

• Understand that where colon cancer has spread to surrounding organs such as the liver, treatment options become much more extreme in nature and limited in ability. At this point, the cancer has reached stage IV, which signals metastatic cancer, making it unlikely that a full remission will ever be forced. Therefore, the goal of treatment becomes to exercise those available methods that will continually slow the cancer's ability to progress while aiming to prolong the patient's life as much as possible.

Treatment Options

• Consult with your physician to decide on the best out of the four following options for colon cancer that has spread to the liver. According to the National Cancer Institute, after cancer spreads to the liver, the generally accepted treatment methods include a combination of chemotherapy and surgery, radiofrequency ablation, cryosurgery or clinical trials.

  Chemotherapy and surgery consists of first using chemotherapy (application of hazardous chemicals to destroy as much of the cancerous tissue as possible) to shrink the tumor, hopefully confining it to one organ or area of the body, then removing that infected area with manual surgery. Treatment of this kind is usually palliative in nature, meaning it is designed to merely ease patient pain and buy addition time.

  Radiofrequency ablation is a procedure that utilizes the application of targeted radio waves to overheat and destroy the cancerous cells. According to the Mayo Clinic, it is a non-invasive procedure with minimal risks that operates best against smaller cancers. Thus, the purpose of radiofrequency ablation in this context is merely to delay the further spread of the tumor.

  Cryosurgery consists of freezing the tumor to immobilize and kill the cancerous cells. Once frozen, as much of the tumor as possible is excised using manual surgical procedures. This is normally carried out by using liquid carbon dioxide or liquid nitrogen.

  Finally, enrollment in a clinical trial is a final option for individuals who have colon cancer that has spread to the liver. Clinical trials are studies designed to examine the feasibility of new types of treatment for cancer. While these are considered long shots as far as effectiveness, the contribution to science might make it worth it for patients who are out of other treatment options.