2004 Volume 49 Issue 3 Pages 87-91
To identify the effect of local treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in our associated institutes in Nagasaki prefecture, we performed a comparative study of hepatic resection and local ablative therapies, including alcohol injection, microwave coagulation and radio-frequency ablation. We examined the patient demographics, outcomes and tumor-free and overall survival between a hepatectomy group (n=210) and a local ablative therapy group (n=52). In the ablative therapy group, there were significantly more patients with cirrhosis and poorer hepatic function than in the hepatectomy group (p<0.001). Larger tumors and vascular involvement in the hepatectomy group were significantly more frequent than in the ablative therapy group (p<0.001 and p=0.002, respectively). The multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated no significant difference either in the time to the first recurrence of tumor after surgery or in mortality between ablative therapy and hepatectomy. By making full use of various modalities in each specialty, the satisfactory HCC treatment could be achieved at this stage.
