Liver resection versus liver resection plus TACE for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma beyond Milan criteria.

Background: The recurrence of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) beyond the Milan criteria after liver resection (LR) is common. This study aimed to clarify whether LR plus postoperative adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) could improve the outcomes of patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria after LR.

Methods: A total of 754 consecutive patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria who received LR alone (n = 459) or LR + TACE (n = 295) were included. A propensity scoring matched model (PSM) was used to adjust for the baseline differences between the groups.

Results: The 1, 3, and 5-y recurrence-free survival (76.7%, 40.4%, and 30.8%, respectively, for the LR-alone group versus 78.3%, 50.5%, and 46.2%, respectively, for the LR + TACE group; P = 0.004) and overall survival (94.1%, 58.3%, and 36.3%, respectively, for the LR-alone group versus 95.3%, 71.3%, and 54.9%, respectively, for the LR + TACE group; P < 0.001) rates of patients who underwent LR alone were much lower than in the LR + TACE group. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that LR alone was an independent risk factor for postoperative recurrence and poor long-term survival. After one-to-one PSM, 284 patients who underwent LR alone and 284 patients who underwent LR + TACE were selected for further analyses. Similar results were observed in the PSM model.

Conclusions: This study showed that LR + TACE may be beneficial for patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria. Postoperative adjuvant TACE should be considered to patients with HCC beyond the Milan criteria.