[Evaluation of prophylactic hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy after hepatectomy for metastases from colorectal cancer--the second report].

We followed 18 patients who underwent curative hepatectomy for metastatic carcinoma of the colon from March 1993 to March 1995, and investigated their survival and the effect of treatment on recurrence. The patients were randomly divided into two groups. Group A (n = 9) was given continuous 5-FU (500 mg x 4 days/week) for six weeks from 2 weeks after surgery via the hepatic artery and Group B (n = 9) was given 5-FU orally from 2 weeks after surgery. The cumulative one-, two-, and three-year survival was 88.9, 88.9, and 76.2% in Group A, while the one- and two-year survival was 100 and 80% in Group B. The one-, two-, and three-year disease-free survival was 77.8% in Group A, while the one- and two-year disease-free survival was 55.6 and 29.6% in Group B (p = 0.0369: Mantel-Cox). These findings suggest that continuous hepatic artery infusion of 5-FU is effective against post-hepatectomy recurrence of metastatic carcinoma of the colon.