Hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma with or without postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization: a comparative study

Abstract

Objective To explore the efficacy of postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) on the survival of patients after radical resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).Methods Between March 2007 and March 2010,229 HCC patients who underwent radical resection were retrospectively studied.Patients who underwent resection alone were used as the control group (138 patients) while those who received post-operative adjuvant TACE was used as the interventional group.In order to balance the covariates between the groups,a matched comparison of the patients was done by selecting patients using the propensity score matching (PSM).Then,the efficacy of adjuvant TACE upon survival was evaluated.Results After PSM,we obtained 67 pairs of patients.The survival time for the interventional and the control groups were 32.1 months and 28.3 months respectively.The survival rates at year 1,2,3 post-resection were 94.0％,84.8％ and 75.3％ in the interventional group versus 83.6％,69.9％ and 61.5％ in the control group respectively.There were no significant differences between the two groups (P =0.062).Univariate analysis showed the serum level of AFP,tumor size,number of tumor,BCLC stage,and adjuvant TACE significantly affected the survival of HCC patients who received radical resection (P ＜0.05).Cox model suggested that AFP≥400 μg/L and tumor diameter ＞ 5 cm were independent risk factors of survival for HCC patients who received radical resection (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Postoperative adjuvant TACE had no positive effect on survival,and AFP level ≥ 400 μg/L and tumor size ＞5 cm were independent risk factors of survival of HCC patients who received radical resection. Key words: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Survival rate ; Transarterial chemoembolization; Propensity score matching