Abstract
In order to elucidate factors of the long survival of more than ten years in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we have examined five cases of histologically-proven HCC who continued to survive over ten years. One case was received partial segmentectomy and has no recurrence since. Except this case, four other cases repeated recurrence, all of whom were treated by transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) and/or percutaneous ethanol injection therapy (PEIT). When the initial lesion was small less than 2 cm, repeated PEIT could have induced complete diminishment of tumor and stayed asymptomatic for more than five years. Even in a large HCC of more than 3 cm, TAE+PEIT could avoid recurrence for more than seven years. For the late recurrence cases (more than five years from the initial occurrence), repeated PEIT seemed to retard the progression of HCC. Except cases with sustained non-recurrence of HCC after hepatectomy, complete eradication of the initial lesion by local ablation and/or TAE may be essential. For the recurrent lesions, early and vigorous local ablation could possibly retard the progression of the tumor, thus resulting in a long survival.
