Results of en bloc resection for hepatocellular carcinoma extending to adjacent organs.

Background: To curatively resect hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with adjacent organ extension, the combined resection of these organs is inevitable. We analyzed the safety and effectiveness of en bloc resection for HCC extending to adjacent organs.

Methods: From December 2002 to May 2006, we compared the surgical outcomes of patients with HCC extending to adjacent organs with those of closely matched, randomly selected patients with HCC without adjacent organ extension.

Results: We included 42 patients whose HCC extended to adjacent organs and 126 patients whose HCC did not extend to adjacent organs. There was no significant difference in survival, operative morbidity or mortality between the groups. In patients with HCC extending to adjacent organs, histopathological examination of the specimen revealed true tumour invasion in 13 and adhesion in 29 patients. Those with tumour invasion were more likely to have a high incidence of capsule infiltration, microvascular invasion and early intrahepatic recurrence (≤ 1 yr after hepatectomy). The 5-year overall survival of patients with tumour invasion was 11.5%, whereas that of patients with tumour adhesion was 38.1% (p = 0.033).

Conclusion: En bloc resection is a safe and effective therapy for HCC extending to adjacent organs. Tumour invasion to adjacent organs exhibits a more aggressive clinical behaviour and is associated with worse survival than tumour adhesion.