Preventive chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma exceeding Milan criteria after fiver transplantation / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the effects of preventive chemotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exceeding Milan criteria after liver transplantation. Methods The clinical data of 243 patients who had undergone orthotopic liver transplantation for HCC exceeding Milan criteria from April 2001 to July 2007 were retrospectively analyzed. Of all patients, 162 received preventive chemotherapy after transplantation. Results The 1- and 3-year survival rates and disease-free survival rates were not statistically different between patients who had received chemotherapy (78.5%, 63.7% ; 76.8%, 52.5% ) and those without chemotherapy (56.6%, 39.1%; 69.3%, 64.7% ) (X2 = 3.084, 0.444, P > 0.05). Cox regression analysis demonstrated that postoperative chemotherapy was not an independent factor affecting the survival rates of HCC patients without vascular invasion, but an independent factor affecting the survival rates of HCC patients with vascular invasion. Conclusions Early preventive chemotherapy could obviously increase the survival rate and delay the tumor recurrence of patients with HCC exceeding Milan criteria, especially for HCC patients with vascular invasion.