Between January 1,1976 and December 31,1989,340 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were admitted to this department. Age ranged from 20 to 80 years, with an average of 59.5 years. The male to female ratio was 3.9: 1.33.2% of the patients had habitual alcohol intake,19.4% of the patient a had a history of blood transfusion,17.1% of the patients showed positive HBs-antigen test and 94.7% of the patients had liver cirrhosis. Of the 340 cases, hepatic resection was performed in 39 cases, percutaneous ethanol injectioin therapy (PEIT) in 25 cases, PEIT and TAE in 30 cases, transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) in 110 cases, conservative therapy in 7 cases, hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy in 65 cases and 64 cases did not receive specific treatment. Median survivals in the above groups were 46.6,37.8,29,20.7,4.3,4.1 and 1 month, respectively. According to the advances of therapies, these cases were divided into 3 periods groups: 1st period (1976-1979),2nd period (1980-1982) and 3rd period (1983-1989). There were significant differences in the survival curve among these 3 periods. Median survival of these periods were 2.5 months (1st period),3.8 months (2nd period) and 18.9 months (3rd period). And 23 cases out of 340 survived over 3 years. About one-second of them did not underwent hepatic resections.
From our clinical study, it was concluded that early detection and resection of the tumor is the first priority for the treatment and improvment of the prognosis of HCC, and even in unresectable cases prolonged survival could be expected.
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