Multimodality treatment resulting in long-term survival in hepatocellular carcinoma

The early detection and complex therapy of the hepatocellular carcinoma (HC C) is one of the most seasonable questions of the gastroenterology-oncology , because of the increasing prevalence of the primary liver cancer. The cou rse of the hepatocellular carcinoma is rapid, untreated patients rarely liv e over 5-6 months. Combination or different treatment modalities in HCC can offer the best chances for survival. If possible, a surgical resection sho uld be the primary procedure, followed by adjuvant cytostatic treatment and chemoembolisation. The authors report three cases with HCC with extremely long survival. The long-term survival achieved by multimodality therapy, as presented in these cases, seems to justify aggressive therapeutical approa ches in HCC. It has been concluded, that early detection and complex, aggre ssive multimodality treatment-even repeated liver resections and surgical e limination of duplex distant metastases-can result in long-term survival wi th a good quality of life. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.