Surgical resection improves the survival of selected hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Barcelona clinic liver cancer stage C.

BACKGROUND

Sorafenib is the only approved agent recommended by the American Association Study of Liver Disease guidelines for hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage C.

AIMS

To calculate and compare overall survival rates in hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage C treated with various therapies or supportive care alone.

METHODS

This was a retrospective study, in which medical data from 411 newly diagnosed hepatocellular carcinoma patients in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage C and Child-Pugh class A were analyzed and compared.

RESULTS

Eighty-eight patients were treated with supportive care and 323 were treated with surgical resection (68/323, 21.1%), local ablation therapy (8/323, 2.5%), transarterial embolization (140/323, 43.3%), systemic chemotherapy or radiotherapy (96/323, 29.7%), and sorafenib (11/323, 3.4%). Median survival was 11 months (95% confidence interval, 9.0-13.1) in treated patients compared with 3.9 months in the supportive care group (hazard ratio, 0.45; 95% confidence interval, 0.35-0.59; p<0.001). Patients who underwent surgical resection had the longest survival compared to patients undergoing other treatments (33.4 months versus 8.1 months, p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Surgical resection resulted in excellent outcomes. Although sorafenib is currently recommended, oncologists should endeavour to select optimal candidates for surgical resection to gain more survival benefit.