[Evaluation of prognosis and recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma treated from 1988 to 2002 at Department of Medicine III, Kyushu University Hospital].

From a series of 452 consecutive patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) admitted to the department of Medicine III, Kyushu University Hospital between January 1988 and December 2002, patients were evaluated, who met the following criteria: (a) the patients had not been diagnosed with HCC previously, (b) they had a solitary HCC less than 4 cm in diameter, or had fewer than three tumors with diameters less than 3 cm, and (c) patients with extrahepatic metastasis or vessel invasion were excluded. Five-year survival was more than 60%, and there were no significant differences in survival among the periods of 1988 - 1989, 1990 - 1994, and 1995 - 2002. There were significant differences in survival among patients with tumors of diameters < 2 cm (80%), 2 - 3 cm (60%), 3 < (40%) cm, and among those with tumor numbers of 1 (70%), 2 (50 %), 3 - 4 tumors (30%).