When is liver resection recommended for bowel cancer?

The operation removes the part of the liver containing cancer while preserving healthy tissue. A specialist team reviews the number and position of deposits, their relationship to blood vessels and bile ducts, liver function, the bowel tumour and whether cancer is present elsewhere.

Scans help map the liver and plan the operation. Chemotherapy may be used before or after surgery, and sometimes treatment can shrink deposits enough to make an operation possible. The final plan depends on the whole pattern of disease rather than one scan detail.

Ask whether your scans have been reviewed by a liver surgeon and a colorectal cancer team. Discuss whether chemotherapy is needed first, how much liver would remain, and whether the bowel tumour requires treatment in the same period. Share information about liver disease, alcohol use and all medicines.

Read about [Liver Resection](/treatments/surgical-oncology/liver-resection/) and [Bowel Cancer](/conditions/colorectal-cancer/) to prepare for the consultation.

Before or after treatment, seek urgent medical advice for severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, fever, increasing jaundice, confusion, fainting or unusual bleeding. After surgery, wound redness, drainage or rapidly increasing abdominal swelling also needs prompt review.

Where are the liver deposits and can they be removed? How much functioning liver is expected to remain? Could chemotherapy change surgical options? What other sites need treatment? How will recovery affect bowel cancer treatment?