Characteristics and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after the year 2000 in Japan

Abstract

Background and aim: The survival rate of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) improved through the 1990s in Japan, primarily due to advances in the detection of small HCC under the establishment of surveillance systems. We investigated how the characteristics of patients with HCC changed and whether this trend is continuing after the year 2000.

Methods: The characteristics and survival rates of patients with initial HCC (not a recurrence) who were diagnosed after the year 2000 until 2008 were analyzed and compared with those of patients in whom HCC was diagnosed in the 1990s or before.

Results: In comparison to 8 years before the year 2000, the percentage of patients with better liver function at diagnosis of HCC increased after the year 2000, whereas the size of maximal HCC tumors did not change in comparison to patients before the year 2000. The survival rate of patients continued increasing after the year 2000.

Conclusions: The prognosis of patients with HCC continues to improve after the year 2000. This is not due to further improvements in the detection of small-sized HCC; the detection of small HCC had reached a plateau in the 1990s. Rather, this improvement appears to be due in part from the continued increase in the distribution of patients with better liver function at diagnosis.