Radiotherapeutic management of liver metastases in colorectal cancer

The liver is the most common site of distant metastases in patients with colorectal cancer, and liver metastases are a frequent cause of death in this patient population. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment, with an expected median survival reaching approximately 2 years. Resection of metastases can achieve long-term cure in a small proportion of these patients. For unresectable or inoperable patients, several options for local ablative therapy exist, including radiofrequency ablation, chemoembolization, and cryotherapy. This review will discuss 2 radiotherapeutic approaches that are of growing interest due to the prospect of reducing treatment-related morbidity: external beam/stereotactic body radiation therapy, and yttrium-90 radio embolization.