Treatment of intrahepatic recurrence after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Background: Prognostic factors after treatment for intrahepatic recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (RHCC) after hepatic resection (Hx) are controversial. The current study aimed to examine the impact of treatment modality on the prognosis of intrahepatic RHCC following Hx. Methods: For control of variables, the subjects were 56 patients who underwent treatment for intrahepatic RHCC, three or fewer tumors, each measuring ≤3 cm in diameter without macroscopic vascular invasion (MVI), between 2000 and 2011. Retreatment consisted of repeat Hx (n = 23), local ablation therapy (n = 11) and transarterial chemoembolization or transcatheter arterial infusion (TACE/TAI) (n = 22). We retrospectively investigated the relation between type of treatment for RHCC and overall survival (OS) as well as disease-free survival (DFS). Results: In multivariate (MV) analysis, the poor prognostic factors in DFS after retreatment consisted of disease-free interval (DFI) (≤1.5 y) (P =.011), type of retreatment (TACE/TAI) (P =.002), age (<65 y old) (P =.0022), perioperative RBC transfusion (P =.025), while those in OS after retreatment were DFI (≤1.5 y) (P