Preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinomas: Retrospective analysis of 120 cases

To clarify whether preoperative transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (T AE) improves the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after surgery, 120 patients who had undergone hepatectomy for HCC from 1988 to 1994 and satisfied the criteria of stages II and III were enrolled in t his study. Forty-four patients underwent preoperative TAE (group A) and 76 patients did not (group B), No significant differences in the outcomes were observed between these two groups. To rectify the comparison, patients wit h tumors 2 to 8 cm were assigned to groups A(1) (n = 24) and B-1 (n = 57), and those with tumors > 8 cm were assigned to groups A(2) (n = 20) and B-2 (n = 19), respectively, Although no significant differences in survival bet ween groups A(1) and B-1 were found, group A(2) presented superior 1-, 2-, and 3-year tumor-free survival rates of 80%, 55%, and 32% and 1-, 3-, and 5 -year cumulative survival rates of 90%, 53%, and 42%. These figures are in comparison with the tumor-free survival rates of 50%, 22%, and 11% (p = 0.0 6), and the cumulative survival rates of 72%, 33%, and 11% (p = 0.01) durin g the same periods for group B-2, respectively. The Cox regression model re vealed that for patients with tumors > 8 cm, the relative risk of preoperat ive TAE for overall survival was 0.38 (p = 0.017), indicating that preopera tive TAE might benefit patients with tumors > 8 cm but not those with tumor s 2 to 8 cm.