Giannelli Gianluigi, Pierri Francesca, Trerotoli Paolo, Marinosci Felice, Serio Gabriella, Schiraldi Oronzo, Antonaci Salvatore
Department of Internal Medicine, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Section of Internal Medicine, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy
Hepatol Res. 2002 Sep;24(1):50. doi: 10.1016/s1386-6346(02)00027-x.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies in the world. Despite improvements in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, prognosis and survival are still poor. To identify factors influencing survival, we retrospectively examined 150 consecutive patients with HCC from the time of first diagnosis of cirrhosis to death. In a multivariate analysis, we found that patients with larger HCC lesions had shorter survival, while other pathologic features had no predictive value. The most important and reliable prognostic factor was the occurrence of tumor thrombus of the portal vein (P<0.01). Child's stage of underlying liver disease was relevant only in the univariate, but not in the multivariate analysis. The survival of patients with HCC is mainly affected by the biological ability of cancer cells to invade surrounding tissue and vessels. More studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms that modulate tumor cell motility, in order to design more effective therapies.
