Recurrent patterns and prognosis following resection of hepatocellular carcinoma

This report is based on an analysis of the recurrent patterns and post-treatment clinical outcome of 78 patients following hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Patients with a single recurrent tumor (group A;n=41) often had multicentric carcinogenesis (41.7%) and were treated locally; i.e., by re-resection or by percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT). Many of them (42.9%) followed the “curative pattern,” with good prognosis (70.3% 5-year survival rate). Although 6 of the patients with two or three recurrent tumors (group B;n=19) had multicentric carcinogenesis that could be treated locally, 13 of the 19 followed the “non-curative pattern,” with a poor prognosis after recurrence (14.8% 3-year survival rate after recurrence). The primary tumors of the patients with multiple or infiltrating type (group C;n=18) were advanced and these patients had metastatic recurrence, thereby following the “early death pattern” (58.8%) with a poor prognosis (30% 5-year survival rate). For group C patients, hepatectomy was regarded as part of a multidisciplinary treatment regimen that included aggressive postoperative chemotherapy as a necessary component.