Risk factors for immediate post-operative fatal recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

AIM: To investigate the clinicopathological risk factors for immediate post-operative fatal recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which may have practical implication and contribute to establishing high risk patients for pre- or post-operative preventive measures against HCC recurrence.

METHODS: From June 1994 to May 2004, 269 patients who received curative resection for HCC were reviewed. Of these patients, those who demonstrated diffuse intra-hepatic or multiple systemic recurrent lesions within 6 mo after surgery were investigated (fatal recurrence group). The remaining patients were designated as the control group, and the two groups were compared for clinicopathologic risk factors.

RESULTS: Among the 269 patients reviewed, 30 patients were enrolled in the fatal recurrence group. Among the latter, 20 patients showed diffuse intra-hepatic recurrence type and 10 showed multiple systemic recurrence type. Multivariate analysis between the fatal recurrence group and control group showed that pre-operative serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level was greater than 1,000 microg/L (P = 0.02; odds ratio = 2.98), tumor size greater than 6.5 cm (P = 0.03; OR = 2.98), and presence of microvascular invasion (P = 0.01; OR = 4.89) were the risk factors in the fatal recurrence group. The 48.1% of the patients who had all the three risk factors and the 22% of those who had two risk factors experienced fatal recurrence within 6 mo after surgery.

CONCLUSION: Three distinct risk factors for immediate post-operative fatal recurrence of HCC after curative resection are pre-operative serum AFP level > 1,000 microg/L, tumor size > 6.5 cm, and microvascular invasion. The high risk patients with two or more risk factors should be the candidates for various adjuvant clinical trials.