Hepatic Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in the Elderly

Abstract

During the past 5 years and 4 months, we have performed hepatic resection on 308 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Of these 308 patients, we examined 271 who had been completely followed up more than 3 months in our outpatient service. These 271 patients were divided into two groups according to age; an elderly group, age 70 years or more (n=37) and a non-elderly group, age less than 70 years (n=234). Preoperative liver function tests, operative procedure, size of the lesion, histological diagnosis of the surrounding parenchyma, postoperative complications, and 30-day mortality rate in the two groups were compared. There were no statistically significant differences in their backgrounds. There was, however, a statistically significant difference in the 4-year survival between the elderly and the non-elderly groups (72% and 35%, respectively, p<0. 05). We have been treating patients with HCC by extensive surgery. The present results suggest that, since hepatic resection for HCC in the elderly is not risky as conventionally thought, it is considered worthwhile to perform extended hepatectomy for HCC even in elderly patients.