Objective: To summarize the experience of the chemotherapy regimen cisplatin + fluorouracil + vincristine (C5V) for hepatoblastoma, and analyze the factors associated the outcome.
Method: A retrospective analysis was conducted for the outcome of hepatoblastoma. Sixty-three patients who received the regimen of C5V as the first choice of chemotherapy were reviewed, including 37 males and 26 females. The age at diagnosis ranged from 2 days after birth to 124 months, median 15 months. Four patients with stage I, 16 patients with stage II, 28 patients with stage III, 15 patients with stage IV disease were enrolled in the study. Nine patients had primary tumor resection while the remain by 54 received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The median follow-up time was 30 months.
Result: Forty patients had delayed surgery, including 35 patients with regimen C5V alone, the others were treated with regimen C5V and cisplatin + adriamycin (CITA). The mean time of neojuvant chemotherapy was (3.4 ± 1.7) cycles. The mean time of chemotherapy after surgery was (5.3 ± 2.0) cycles. In 12 cases the (24.5%) tumor recurred after surgery. The margin of resection less than 0.5 cm , vascular invasion, stage III or IV disease were all the high risks of relapse (P = 0.049,0.001,0.022, respectively). Two-year overall survival (OS) and 5-year OS of the study was 61.1% and 58.7%, respectively. The 2-year OS and 5-year OS of stage I to III were 75.0% and 75.0%, 100.0% and 100.0%, 65.8% and 61.4%. The 1-year OS and 3-year OS of stage IV was 20.0%, 13.3%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that age at diagnosis less than 60 months, vascular invasion, thrombocythemia at diagnosis, stage III or IV, tumor resection was the prognostic factor (P = 0.019, <0.001,0.011, <0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that tumor resection and age at diagnosis less than 60 months were both the prognostic factor (P < 0.001, 0.004, respectively ).
Conclusion: The regimen of C5V is useful for hepatoblastoma. Tumor resection is the key factor of treatment. Prognostic factor is composed of age, stage, and clinical sign at diagnosis.