Source
UNSW Department of Surgery, St George Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; The Collaborative Research (CORE) Group, Sydney, Australia.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Primary hepatectomy is an accepted treatment for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with good long-term survival, but high rates of recurrence. This review aims to evaluate the safety and efficacy of repeat hepatectomy for recurrent HCC after initial hepatectomy.
METHODS:
Electronic searches identified 22 eligible studies comprising of 1125 patients for systematic review. Studies with >10 patients, adopting repeat hepatectomy treatment for recurrent HCC initially treated with hepatectomy were selected for inclusion. A predetermined set of data comprising demographic details, morbidity and mortality indices and survival outcomes were collected for every study and tabulated.
RESULTS:
Majority of patients selected for repeat hepatectomy had Child-Pugh A (median 94%, range 40-100). Intrahepatic recurrence occurred at a median of 22.4 (range 12-48) months in this patient cohort with single nodule recurrences comprising of 70% of cases. The median mortality rate was 0% (range 0-6%). Prolonged ascites was observed in a median of 4% (range 0-32%), bleeding in 1% (range 0-9%), bile leak in 1% (range 0-6%) and liver failure in 1% (range 0-2%). The median disease-free survival was 15 (range 7-32) months and median overall survival was 52 (range 22-66) months. Median 3-year and 5-year survival was 69% (range 41-88%) and 52% (range 22-83%) respectively. Recurrences occurring 12-18 months after initial hepatectomy was consistently associated with improved survival.
CONCLUSION:
Synthesized data from observational studies of repeat hepatectomy suggests that this treatment approach for recurrent HCC is safe and achieves long-term survival. Standardization of criteria for repeat hepatectomy and a randomized trial are warranted.