Multimodal treatment of stage IVa hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The effectiveness of multimodal therapy for Stage IVa hepatocellular carcinoma was investigated.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Between 1982 and 1994, 40 patients with primary Stage IVa tumors were treated in our clinical unit.

RESULTS

The overall survival rate was 79.7% at 1 year, 37.0% at 3 years, and 20.8% at 5 years. However, the most successful multimodal therapy, a combination of hepatectomy, embolization, and ethanol injection, achieved significantly better results (92.9% at 1 year, 59.6% at 3 years, and 47.7% at 5 years). This improved survival could still be obtained by multimodal therapy, even when surgical resection was incomplete.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that multimodal therapy including hepatectomy can be recommended for improving the survival of patients with Stage IVa hepatocellular carcinoma.