ABSTRACT
Aim of the study: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a lethal malignancy with heterogeneous behavior determined by liver function, clinical presentation and treatment response. Peritoneal metastasis (PM) from HCC is rare and management is challenging. We aim to report a cohort of patients with advanced HCC and describe demographic characteristics, treatment and outcomes of patients with PM. Material and methods: We analyzed data from a retrospective cohort of patients with HCC. Patients with PM were analyzed individually. Baseline characteristics, treatment strategy and median overall survival (OS) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were reported. Results: 238 patients with advanced HCC were evaluated. Eleven patients had PM: 7 patients were treated with systemic treatment and 4 were treated with upfront peritonectomy followed by systemic treatment at recurrence. These 4 patients had well-preserved liver function and low disease burden and were younger compared to the total cohort. The median time to recurrence after peritonectomy was 30.25 months (interquartile range [IQR]: 13.53-46.92): 3 of them presented peritoneal recurrence (2 with diffuse peritoneal spread and 1 with concomitant hepatic recurrence) and 1 presented pulmonary recurrence. Overall, patients with PM showed similar OS compared to patients with other metastatic sites (11.8 months; 95% CI: 1.5-19.8 vs. 8 months; 95% CI: 6.7-10, p = 0.901). Patients with PM treated with upfront surgery had a median OS of 60 months (95% CI: 16.7-not reached). Conclusions: Resection of PM from HCC may provide long-term survival in selected patients. A multidisciplinary approach is the optimal strategy for managing PM from HCC.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the 6th cause of cancer and hepatitis C (HCV) and B (HBV) viruses are the most frequent risk factors for HCC. Patients coinfected with HCV or HBV and HIV present a faster progression to liver fibrosis and higher incidence of HCC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival and clinical outcomes of coinfected patients with HCC comparing with non-HIV patients. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study, including 267 HCC patients with HCV or HBV infection with or without HIV. The primary endpoint was overall survival. A Kaplan-Meier curve was presented to assess survival function. Clinical and radiologic variables, according to HIV status, were compared by logistic regression. RESULTS: Among 267 HCC patients, 25 (9.3%) were HIV-positive. In the coinfected group, patients were younger (49.8 vs 61.2 years, P < 0.001), cirrhosis was less predominant (88 vs 96.7%, P = 0.05), a smaller proportion received HCC treatment (60 vs 86.3%, P = 0.001) and the frequency of portal vein tumoral thrombosis was higher (32 vs 11.1%, P = 0.003). The overall mortality rate was higher in the HIV-positive group (92 vs 74.3%), independently of clinical and tumoral variables. CONCLUSION: Coinfected patients with HCC presented higher mortality, tumor diagnosis in a younger age, less underlying cirrhosis and a higher frequency of tumoral thrombosis. Further studies are warranted to better understand the role of HIV in hepatocarcinogenesis, in order to improve the management of those patients, particularly regarding screening programs.
