Colorectal Cancer With Liver-limited Synchronous Metastases: an Inception Cohort Study of Standardised Care Pathways

Background When first diagnosed, colorectal cancer has already metastasized in about 20% of patients to the liver or further (termed synchronous disease). For patients with metastatic disease limited to the liver, major surgery to resect both the primary colorectal cancer and the liver metastasis provides 5-year survival rates of 25-40%. Conventional surgery removes the colorectal primary first, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy, and then resection of the liver metastasis. Surgical advances make synchronous resection (removing both primary and liver metastasis together) and liver-first resection possible. Currently, there is no conclusive evidence to show which approach improves morbidity or survival, and therefore there is no optimum clinical pathway. Treatment is decided at multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings and is dependent on multiple factors: cancer staging, patient health and preferences, and clinical experience. Methods "Colorectal cancer with Synchronous liver-limited hepatic Metastasis: an Inception Cohort (CoSMIC)", will consent and recruit patients with a new diagnosis of synchronous colorectal cancer limited to the liver. Patients will be recruited at Manchester Royal Infirmary (a National Health Service (NHS) regional cancer-network approved Hepato-pancreato-biliary specialist centers over 2 years using standardized data collection. The sequence of treatment received by each patient, and factors influencing treatment decisions, will be recorded and evaluated against European Society of Medical Oncology guidelines. The effect of surgery on patient quality of life, morbidity, mortality and the long-term outcome will be measured and compared for different treatment sequences adjusted for prognostic factors. Anticipated Outputs and Value of Findings Direct comparison of conventional and new surgical sequences will be explored. Patient engagement, use of standardised recording, identifying common clinical patterns and decision making, and understanding sources of variation are essential steps to develop a definite randomized control trial to resolve the optimal clinical pathway.