Efficacy of the Milan criteria as a prognostic factor in patients with colorectal liver metastases

Purpose This study aimed to apply the principles of the "Milan criteria" to patients undergoing hepatic resection for CRLM and to evaluate the efficacy of prognostic factors. Methods The medical records of consecutive patients who underwent curative resection for CRLM from April 2007 to April 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Time to aggressive treatment failure (TATF) was defined as the time interval from the initial surgery until the first unresectable recurrence or recurrence that could only be treated with doublet or lower dose chemotherapy, or death. The risk factors associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS), TSF, TATF, and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Results On univariate analysis, the Milan criteria significantly predicted long-term OS, TATF, TSF, and RFS. Moreover, the Milan criteria were able to stratify patients with CRLM into distinct prognostic groups with regard to long-term OS, TATF, TSF, and RFS. Conclusions Milan criteria, a simple index, are a factor contributing to all the survival time and are a very important factor in discussing the prognosis of CRLM.