Risk Factors, Patterns, and Long-Term Survival of Recurrence After Radiofrequency Ablation With or Without Transarterial Chemoembolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES

To classify hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence patterns after radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with RFA (TACE-RFA) and analyze their risk factors and impacts on survival.

METHODS

We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of HCC patients who underwent RFA or TACE-RFA from January 2006 to December 2016. HCC recurrences were classified into four patterns: local tumor progression (LTP), intra-segmental recurrence, extra-segmental recurrence, and aggressive recurrence. Risk factors, overall survival (OS), and post-recurrence survival of each pattern were evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 249 patients with a single, hepatitis-B virus (HBV)-related HCC ≤ 5.0 cm who underwent RFA (HCC ≤ 3.0 cm) or TACE-RFA (HCC of 3.1-5.0 cm) were included. During follow-up (median, 53 months), 163 patients experienced HCC recurrence: 40, 43, 62 and 18 patients developed LTP, intra-segmental recurrence, extra-segmental recurrence, and aggressive recurrence, respectively; the median post-recurrence survival was 49, 37, 25 and 15 months, respectively (P < .001); the median OS was 65, 56, 58 and 28 months, respectively (P < .001). Independent risk factors for each pattern were as follows: tumor sized 2.1-3.0 cm undergoing RFA alone and insufficient ablative margin for LTP, periportal tumor and non-smooth tumor margin for intra-segmental recurrence, HBV-DNA ≥ 2000 IU/mL for extra-segmental recurrence, and periportal tumor and α-fetoprotein ≥ 100 ng/mL for aggressive recurrence. Recurrence pattern (P < .001) and Child-Pugh class B (P = .025) were independent predictors for OS.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on our classification, each recurrence pattern had different recurrence risk factors, OS, and post-recurrence survival.