You’re faced with a challenging case of a patient with rectal cancer and synchronous liver lesion. Where do you start: chemotherapy, chemoradiotherapy, upfront surgery, liver first, rectum first? 
Join Drs. Carole Richard, François Dagbert and Maher Al Khaldi as they discuss the management of a patient with rectal cancer with a synchronous hepatic metastasis. 

Learning objectives

In this episode, we discuss the workup of a rectal tumour associated with synchronous liver metastases, indications for resection of the hepatic lesion, neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment modalities, survival benefit of resection and patient follow-up.
 
Reference list:

Moulton C-A, Gu C-S, Law CH, Tandan VR, Hart R, Quan D, et al. Effect of PET Before Liver Resection on Surgical Management for Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Metastases: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2014;311(18):1863–9.

Bahadoer RR, Dijkstra EA, Etten B van, Marijnen CAM, Putter H, Kranenbarg EM-K, et al. Short-course radiotherapy followed by chemotherapy before total mesorectal excision (TME) versus preoperative chemoradiotherapy, TME, and optional adjuvant chemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer (RAPIDO): a randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2021;22(1):29–42.