Analyses of hepatocellular carcinoma patients having survived longer than 5 years after curative hepatectomy without relapses

Abstract

Post-treatment recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is highly frequent due to intrahepatic metastasis and/or metachronous carcinogenesis, making relapse-free survival a rare event. The aims of the current study are to evaluate the clinicopathological features of HCC patients who survived for a long time post-operatively. Of 133 patients who had undergone curative resection of HCC, 42 survived for more than 5 years without recurrence. Ten year survival rate of these 42 patients was 77%. Multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis identified the "A-factor", which is the marker of the activity of hepatitis, as an independently significant predictor of the recurrence-free 5-year survivors. The rate of moderate activity of hepatitis (A2) in patients with hepatitis C was higher than that in those with hepatitis B. The lower degree of activity of hepatitis was associated with the longer-term disease-free survival. Thus, the stabilization of hepatic inflammation by conservative and/or antiviral drugs such as interferon may be useful for the long-term disease-free survival in patients who underwent curative resection of HCC.