The liver metastases are the most common tumors of the liver. They especially difficult cancers drained by the splanchnic circulation (colon, pancreas, stomach), but can be seen in almost all cancers generalized (lung, ovarian, breast, esophagus, kidney, neuro-endocrine tumors etc .).

The main point of diagnosis is the context: the ultrasound liver is the staging of any cancer, but also surveillance after resection of cancer, especially colon cancer. The emergence of a focal lesion in the course of such monitoring is highly suggestive. If cancer is not known, guided biopsy can be diagnostic and will be followed by a search of the primary cancer.

Biology liver is usually disrupted (increased GGT, alkaline phosphatase) but this is not always the case (10% approximately normal biology). The search for neoplastic markers (CEA, CA 19-9, etc …) can be positive. Metastases of digestive endocrine tumors (carcinoid, insulinoma, etc …) are sometimes responsible for hormonal secretion and are accompanied by high rates of clinical manifestations.

Treatment depends on the nature of the tumor resection possible in case of single or localized lesions (especially colon), and / or chemotherapy (sometimes resulting in transient tumor regression)