Preoperative Predictors of Futile Resection of Intraabdominal Extrahepatic Metastases from Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The management of post-liver resection recurrence is often the life-limiting factor in HCC treatment. While much has been published on intrahepatic recurrence and lung metastasis, there is a relative lack of data on intraabdominal extrahepatic metastasis (EHM). We sought to evaluate the outcomes of patients post-resection of intraabdominal EHM and assess preoperative factors predictive of early recurrence post-metastasectomy.We performed a retrospective review of 25 consecutive patients who underwent metastasectomy for intraabdominal EHM from 2003 to 2016 at our institution.Of the 25 cases of EHM, 16 were in the peritoneum, 3 in the adrenal glands, 3 in the large bowel, 1 in the spleen, 1 in the pancreas and 1 in the omentum. Median overall survival was 27 months (IQR 15-89 months). Twenty-one patients (84%) developed recurrence post-metastasectomy of EHM of which 12 patients experienced early recurrence within 12 months. The median time to recurrence post-metastasectomy was 11(IQR 15.5) months. Multivariate analysis demonstrated both hepatitis B (11 (91.6%) versus 4 (44.4%), p = 0.00) status and high tumour grade (8 (66.6%) versus 3 (25%), p = 0.004) to be significant independent predictors of early recurrence. Patients who experienced early recurrence had a significantly shorter median overall survival (18 months (95% CI 12.9-23.0)) compared to those who did not (89 months (95% CI 24.8-153.1), p = 0.004).Patients with EHM who underwent metastasectomy had a median overall survival of 27 months. Hepatitis B positivity and high primary tumour grade were preoperative predictors of futile surgery. All 7 patients who had both hepatitis B and high tumour grade experienced early recurrence post-metastasectomy.