Surgical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma in elderly cirrhotic patients

Abstract

Background/aims: Both cirrhosis and old age have been reported to be risk factors for hepatic resection. This study evaluated the clinical results of hepatic resection in elderly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with cirrhosis.

Methodology: During a 5-year period, 248 patients with HCC underwent curative hepatic resection. Among them, 24 elderly patients (age: > or = 70 years) with cirrhosis (Group I), 24 patients (age: > or = 70 years) without cirrhosis (Group II), and 98 patients (age: < 70 years) with cirrhosis (Group III) were selected for the study. The clinical and pathologic parameters, including pre-operative demographic features, surgical factors, pathological factors, DNA flow-cytometric analysis of the resected specimen, and post-resection prognosis were compared among the three groups.

Results: Group I patients had a significantly higher incidence of small-size tumors, hepatitis C infection, concomitant esophageal varices, and minor resection with a shorter surgical margin in the resected specimen. The surgical morbidity and mortality of Group I was similar to that of Group II and III patients. However, the disease-free survival rate was significantly lower in the Group I patients than in Group II (p = 0.02) and Group III patients (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that although hepatic resection can be done safely in elderly cirrhotic HCC patients, the prognosis for these patients was less favorable even when curative resection was performed.