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A Comparison of Yttrium-90 Microsphere Radioembolization to Hepatic Arterial Infusional Chemotherapy for Patients with Chemo-refractory Hepatic Colorectal Metastases

  • Lower Gastrointestinal Cancers (AB Benson, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Patients with unresectable hepatic colorectal metastases who become chemo-refractory have limited treatment options. Systemic chemotherapies such as TAS102 and regorafenib have been used in the refractory setting, but with only modest improvement in overall survival compared to best supportive care. In patients with liver-only or liver-dominant disease, direct chemotherapy to the liver such as hepatic artery infusional (HAI) chemotherapy and radioembolization (yttrium-90 (Y90)) should be considered. Due to the difficulty of HAI therapy post Y90 for technical reasons, we recommend HAI therapy prior to Y90.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Andrea Cercek MD, Taryn Boucher BA & Nancy Kemeny MD

  2. Department of Radiology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Vyacheslav Gendel MD & John Nosher MD

  3. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, 195 Little Albany St, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA

    Salma Jabbour MD, John Nosher MD & Darren R. Carpizo MD, PhD

  4. Department of Radiation Oncology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Salma Jabbour MD

  5. Department of Biostatistics, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Dirk Moore PhD & Chunxia Chen Msc

  6. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Marinela Capanu PhD & Joanne F. Chou MPH

  7. Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Darren R. Carpizo MD, PhD

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  1. Andrea Cercek MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Darren R. Carpizo MD, PhD.

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Conflict of Interest

Andrea Cercek declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Vyacheslav Gendel declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Salma Jabbour declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Dirk Moore declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Chunxia Chen declares that she has no conflict of interest.

John Nosher declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Marinela Capanu declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Joanne F. Chou declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Taryn Boucher declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Nancy Kemeny has received financial support through a grant from Amgen.

Darren R. Carpizo has received financial support through a grant and has received compensation from Z53 Therapeutics for service as a consultant.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Research Funding

MSK Cancer Center Support Grant/Core Grant (P30 CA008748), R01CA200800, K08CA172676, BCRF to DRC.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Lower Gastrointestinal Cancers

This paper is not based on previous communication to a society or meeting.

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Cercek, A., Gendel, V., Jabbour, S. et al. A Comparison of Yttrium-90 Microsphere Radioembolization to Hepatic Arterial Infusional Chemotherapy for Patients with Chemo-refractory Hepatic Colorectal Metastases. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 18, 42 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-017-0481-1

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