Objective: The combination of hepatic arterial chemotherapy(HAIC) and systemic chemotherapy(SYC) has potential effect on colorectal cancer(CRC) patients with unresectable hepatic metastasis. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of this combined therapeutic regimen on Chinese patients based on single institute experiences. Methods: All 54 patients of this retrospective analysis were diagnosed with CRC with unresectable liver metastasis and received combined HAIC and SYC. Among the patients, 23 of them received HAIC plus SYC when they developed liver metastases as first-line treatment(Group 1), and 31 patients received HAIC plus SYC as non-first-line treatment(Group 2). The different efficacy in two groups was analyzed by SPSS 19.0. Results: The overall response rate(ORR) were 52.2% and 25.8% respectively in Groups 1 and 2(P = 0.047), and the disease control rate(DCR) were 65.2% and 35.5% respectively in Groups 1 and 2(P = 0.031). The median progression-free survival(PFS) were 6.8 and 3.3 months(P = 0.002), the median hepatic progression-free survival(H-PFS) were 8.8 and 3.7 months(P = 0.001), and the median overall survival(OS) were 18.8 and 13.7 months(P = 0.121) in Groups 1 and 2, respectively. No fatal reaction was observed and no significant difference of adverse reaction was found in two groups. Grade 3/4 toxic effects included neutropenia(9.7% in Group 2 only), gastrointestinal reaction(8.7% in Group 1 and 6.5% in Group 2), stomatitis(6.5% in Group 2 only) and hyperbilirubinemia(4.3% in Group 1 only). Conclusion: HAIC combined with SYC showed promising efficacy and safe profiles on CRC patients with unresectable liver metastases.
