The incidence of non-B, non-C hepatocellular carcinoma has shown an increasing trend in the recent years. However, the &ldqup;Clinical Practice Guidelines for hepatocellular carcinoma” do not take the causes of background hepatic lesions into account when deciding the treatment methods. Therefore, we investigate the treatment methods for non-B, non-C hepatocellular carcinoma, particularly, the outcome of percutaneous ablation therapy. This study included hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing their initial treatment at our hospital.
The patients were divided into the following groups: B group, which included patients positive for hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigens; C group, which included patients positive for hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies; and non-B, non-C group, which included patients negative for both HBs antigen and HCV antibodies. Most of the patients included in the non-B, non-C group had a history of heavy alcohol consumption or the complication of malignant tumors of other organs. These patients were older than those in the B group, and had low liver damage grades and more advanced tumors than those in the C group. In the initial treatment, 43% of the patients in the non-B, non-C groups underwent hepatectomy; 13%, percutaneous ablation therapy; 12%, transcatheter hepatic arterial embolization; 19%, transcatheter hepatic arterial embolization + percutaneous ablation therapy. The number of patients who underwent hepatectomy was higher in the non-B, non-C group than in the C group. In terms of the cumulative survival rate of the non-B, non-C group patients according to the type of initial treatment, there were no differences in the outcomes of hepatectomy, percutaneous ablation therapy, and transcatheter hepatic arterial embolization + percutaneous ablation therapy.
Even when the investigation was limited to Stage I patients with grade A liver damage, the cumulative survival rate after hepatectomy was comparable to that after the percutaneous ablation therapy.
These findings suggest that there is no need to take the causes of background hepatic lesions into consideration when deciding the treatment method for hepatocellular carcinomas, including non-B, non-C hepatocellular carcinoma.
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