Clinical course on patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma surviving longer than one year.

Abstract

Twelve of seventy patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (PHC) treated between 1969 and 1975 have survived more than one year after diagnosis. The number of such patients tended to increase in the past several years. This improvement is the result of earlier diagnosis and a recent advance in treatments.
A history prior to the presentation with PHC, a clinical course and laboratory investigations were reviewed in 12 patients surviving longer than one year. PHC followed chronic liver diseases in 8 patients and 5 patients had diabetes millitus. HBs-antigen was present in the sera of 7 patients. It suggests that HBs-positive patients and patients with chronicliver diseases complicated with diabetes mellitus have to be followed up carefully.
Serum albumin and peripheral blood lymphocytes decreased significantly and serum bililubin and ac-fetoprotein increased in the end stage of patients with PHC. It indicates that those factors may serve as prognostic indicators.