Whole Liver Palliative Radiotherapy for Patients with Massive Liver Metastases

Background: The purpose of this retrospectively study was to examine the effectiveness and tolerability ofa radiotherapy technique for the palliation of symptomatic liver metastases. Materials and
Methods: Twentysevenpatients with liver metastases were enrolled and received targeted whole liver irradiation consisting ofmean 1, 8 Gy in five to twelve fractions to a total mean dose 17Gy. Symptoms at baseline were hepatic pain (26patients), lost of weight (6), lack of appetite (2), and night sweats (1). Seventeen patients (63%) had failed previoustreatment with chemotherapy and/or high-dose steroids.
Results: Individual symptom response rates were 100%at 4 weeks. Partial or complete global symptomatic responses were noted in 11 patients (40%) after 2 months.After 3 months, 8 patients (28%) reported loss of pain. The treatment was well tolerated with one patient (3%)experiencing grade 3 toxicity (one vomiting and one diarrhoea). Overall the median survival time was 4.9 months(range 1 - 14 months). One year survival was 39%.
Conclusions: This is simple and well-tolerated treatment butto achieve good palliation effects we should carefully selected patients whose conventional treatment does notbring good analgesic control.