Local recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after percutaneous ethanol injection

✍ Scribed by Hiroshi Ishii; Shuichi Okada; Haruhiko Nose; Takuji Okusaka; Masayoshi Yoshimori; Tadatoshi Takayama; Tomoo Kosuge; Susumu Yamasaki; Michiie Sakamoto; Setsuo Hirohashi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 458 KB
• Volume: 77
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0142(19960501)77:9<1792::aid-cncr6>3.0.co;2-e

✦ Synopsis

Background:

Percutaneous ethanol injection (pei) therapy is now widely used for small hepatocellular carcinomas (hcc). however, only limited information is available regarding local tumor recurrence after pei treatment.

Methods:

We investigated the relationship of pretreatment clinicopathologic variables (tumor size, tumor cell differentiation and tumor staining) to local recurrence in 170 pei-treated hcc nodules (measuring 5-39 mm in greatest dimension) in 84 patients.

Results:

Local recurrence was observed in 17 of 170 pei-treated nodules. among these, 13 local recurrences were observed as the first event of progression after pei. local recurrence rates at 1, 2, and 4 years were 6.6%, 14.2%, and 14.2%, respectively, and all recurrences were observed within 2 years after pei. of the 3 variables investigated, large tumor size (31 mm or larger in greatest dimension) was significantly associated with a higher local recurrence rate.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrated that tumor size influences the local efficacy of pei for small hcc. therefore, we recommend that a reasonable indication for pei therapy is hcc lesions measuring less than 30 mm in greatest dimension.