Update from the TRANSMET trial: survival benefit seen for patients with unresectable colorectal liver metastases

August 2024

Patients living with colorectal liver metastases that cannot be removed by surgery experience poor long-term survival outcomes. The TRANSMET trial aimed to assess the efficacy of chemotherapy plus liver transplant compared to chemotherapy alone for this subgroup of colorectal cancer patients.

Updated findings from the TRANSMET trial presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Gastrointestinal Cancer Congress 2024 showed that chemotherapy combined with liver transplant in patients with unresectable (not able to be removed by surgery) colorectal liver metastases resulted in a 5-year overall survival rate that was four times longer than patients who were treated with chemotherapy alone.

The researchers note that these findings will certainly change the way treatment is managed for patients with unresectable liver metastases. They add, however, that the TRANSMET study included patients with quite strict eligibility criteria, such as the absence of any metastasis outside of the liver, which is more common among patients who are receiving later lines of treatment for advanced colorectal cancer. This means that this treatment approach would only apply to a narrow subgroup of patients with colorectal cancer.