Background: Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent hepatectomy often developed an intrahepatic recurrence, even though it was a curative one. The relationship between surgery-induced liver damage and the recurrence of HCC has not been described. This study evaluated whether posthepatectomy liver failure, as defined by the International Study Group of Liver Surgery, affected the recurrence of HCC.
Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 488 patients with HCC who underwent hepatectomy between 2004 and 2012 at Kyoto University Hospital. Early posthepatectomy liver failure (EPLF) was defined as liver failure occurring between postoperative days 5 and 10. The patients were divided into an EPLF group and a non-EPLF group. Disease-free survival (DFS) was compared between these groups. The influences of host-related, surgery-related, and tumor-related factors on patient outcomes were evaluated using multivariate analyses.
Results: The EPLF group and the non-EPLF group contained 153 and 335 patients, respectively. The probability of DFS was significantly increased in the non-EPLF group (median: 574 days) compared to the EPLF group (median: 348 days) (hazard ratio, HR [95 % confidence interval, CI] 1.61 [1.29-2.00]). The multivariate analysis revealed that EPLF was an independent factor for DFS (HR [95 % CI] 1.43 [1.13-1.81]), besides the factors previously described, including fibrosis (1.32 [1.05-1.67]), stage (1.85 [1.34-2.51]), tumor differentiation (1.46 [1.11-1.89]), and des-γ-carboxyprothrombin (1.39 [1.10-1.74]).
Conclusions: EPLF was associated with postoperative HCC recurrence. The prevention of EPLF might improve the prognosis of patients with HCC.