Metachronous multicentric occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma after surgical treatment - Clinicopathological comparison with recurrence due to metastasis

This study investigated clinicopathological features of patients with recur rence of metachronous multicentric occurrence by comparison with patients w ith recurrence due to metastasis. In 177 patients, recurrences after curati ve surgical treatment were classified into recurrence due to metastasis acc ording to criteria based on imaging findings. This group consisted of 35 pa tients. Among the rest of the patients, 59 underwent fine needle biopsies f or recurrent tumor and, in these patients, a classification of recurrence o f metachronous multicentric occurrence was made based on the histological f indings of primary and recurrent tumor. This group consisted of 33 patients . The estimated incidence for recurrence of metachronous multicentric occur rence was 44.8% to total total patients. Metachronous multicentric occurren ce frequently developed in patients with anti-HCV antibody and an early sta ge of primary tumor. In 80% of the patients who had recurrent tumor of mult icentric origin, the recurrence developed within 3 postoperative years. The survival rate in patients with metachronous multicentric occurrence was si gnificantly higher than that in patients with recurrence due to metastasis. Conclusively, the incidence of patients with recurrence of metachronous mu lticentric occurrence was high, but the prognosis for these patients was si gnificantly better than that for patients with recurrence due to metastasis .