The value of resection of primary tumor in gastric cancer patients with liver metastasis

Purpose Surgery for gastric cancer with synchronous liver metastasis is applied for palliation. The aim was to determine whether surgical removal of the primary tumor provides a better survival and disease progression Methods Sixty-two patients are classified according to the primary tumor were removed or not. Patients and tumor characteristics, removal of the primary tumor are examined as the factors that were affecting overall survival and metastatic progression-free survival. Results The mean follow-up time was 243±23 days. The mean survival of the resection and nonresection groups were 422±50 and 170±16 days (p = 0.0001), respectively. After adjustment for other covariates, resection was associated with a trend toward improvement in overall survival (p = 0.003; relative risk RR: 0.34; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.17–0.66) and improvement in metastatic progression-free survival (p = 0.07, RR = 0.51; 95% CI: 0.25–1.07). Conclusions Excision of the primary tumor has an effect on metastatic progression-free survival and overall survival.