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Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the long-term outcomes and prognostic factors of elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing hepatectomy.Material and Methods: From January 1983 to December 2006, 2,283 patients with HCC received hepatectomy in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. The clinicopathological data and treatment outcomes of 67 elderly HCC patients (elderly group, > or =70 years of age) and 268 patients (control group, <70 years of age) who were selected randomly from the 2216 younger patients were compared retrospectively.Results: The elderly HCC patients had lower hepatitis B surface antigen-positive rate (P < 0.001), lower rate of marked alpha-fetoprotein elevation (P = 0.004), higher infection rate of hepatitis C virus (P = 0.010), more preoperative comorbidities (P < 0.001), higher rate of tumor encapsulation (P = 0.040), and better overall survival rate (P = 0.017); whereas there were no significant differences between these two groups in other factors, including gender ratio, liver function, accompanying cirrhosis, pathological tumor-node-metastasis (pTNM) staging, satellite nodules, vascular invasion, tumor rupture, resection margin, intraoperative blood loss, incidence of postoperative complications, hospital mortality, and disease-free survival rate. Multivariate analysis showed that pTNM staging was an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival in elderly patients with HCC.Conclusion: HCC in the elderly was less HBV-associated, less advanced, and less aggressive. Hepatectomy for selected elderly patients with HCC possibly have a better curative effect compared with younger patients. For the elderly patients without preoperative comorbidities or with controlled comorbidities, hepatectomy is a safe and effective treatment. pTNM staging is the only independent predictor of postoperative overall survival in elderly HCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Porous phosphomolybdate-based poly(ionic liquid) containing 70% water was firstly synthesized and applied for oxidative desulfurization. • Desulfurization efficiency could achieve 100 % at 40 min with lower H 2 O 2 /S (molar ratio) and catalyst dosage. • The effects of water on the microstructure and catalytic activity were systematically investigated, and the water absorption behavior of the catalyst is reversible. A novel porous phosphomolybdate-based poly(ionic liquid) catalyst containing 70 % water (PDIM-PMo-W 70%) was assembled with H 3 PMo 12 O 40 (HPMo) and poly-[3-dodecyl-1-vinylimidazolium] bromine (PDIMBr), and characterized by FT-IR, UV–vis, XRD, XPS, Contact angle test, SEM, TEM, TGA, and N 2 adsorption–desorption analysis. The turnover frequency (TOF) value of PDIM-PMo-W 70% for (dibenzothiophene) DBT removal can reach 41.15 h−1 at 50 °C, which is 35.47 and 9.92 times higher than that of HPMo and PDIM-PMo. The catalyst could be recycled at least five times without a significant change in catalytic activity. The water content of the catalyst, reaction temperature, the molar ratio of H 2 O 2 /S, catalyst dosage and different sulfur-containing compounds upon oxidative desulfurization (ODS) performance were studied in detail. Most notably, the effects of water on the microstructure and catalytic activity of polyoxometalate-based poly(ionic liquid) were systematically investigated for the first time. As well as the water absorption behavior on the catalyst was reversible, and the dehydrated catalysts after soaking in water could still show excellent catalytic activity. In addition, a reasonable reaction mechanism was proposed with the aid of EPR analysis and radical quenching experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]