Surgical Treatment of Combined Hepatocellular-Cholangiocarcinoma is as Effective in Elderly Patients as it is in Younger Patients: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis.

To compare the long-term prognosis of younger and elderly patients with combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (CHC) who underwent curative resection between 1993 and 2014 at our center. Two hundred and thirteen patients who underwent liver resection for CHC were enrolled in our study. The overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of elderly patients (age≥60, n=52) and younger patients (age<60, n=161) were compared by multivariate analysis and propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. Among the 213 CHC patients, the elderly patients had a higher rate of worse Child-Pugh grade (P=0.027), abnormal serum albumin (P<0.001) and lymphoid metastases (P=0.024). The proportion of HBV-positive CHC patients (74.6%, 159/213) was much higher than that observed in healthy cohorts. Younger patients had a higher rate of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection compared to older patients (83.9% vs 46.2%, P<0.001). OS and DFS of the elderly and younger patients before and after propensity score matching were comparable. Elderly and younger patients who underwent liver resection for CHC have comparable long-term OS and DFS.