Systemic chemotherapy using carboplatin and 5-fluorouracil for extrahepatic metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background/aims: We have evaluated the effectiveness of systemic chemotherapy for patients with extrahepatic metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma.

Methodology: We examined the background, survival rates, median survival time and side effects of 15 cases in which systemic chemotherapy using carboplatin and 5-fluorouracil was done (chemotherapy group) and 59 cases in which chemotherapy was not done (non-chemotherapy group) out of a total of 74 cases of patients with extrahepatic metastasis from hepatocellular carcinoma.

Results: The prognoses of the 15 chemotherapy cases and the 59 non-chemotherapy cases were as follows: 66.0%, 33.3%, 20.0% at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months respectively for the chemotherapy cases and 44.0%, 18.2%, 7.1% respectively for the non-chemotherapy cases. Median survival periods were 10.7 months for the chemotherapy group and 5.1 months for the non-chemotherapy group. A significantly better prognosis of survival (p=0.037) was identified in the chemotherapy group and no serious side effects were observed.

Conclusions: The present research preceded the approval of sorafenib. This systemic combination chemotherapy will provide an extended survival prognosis and is thus considered to be comparatively safe and effective in those patients.