Characteristics and course of small hepatocellular carcinomas in patients with hepatitis C virus types 1 and 2

The associations between types of HCV and tumor characteristics and recurrence and survival after treatment of small HCC were investigated. Viral genotype-specific antibodies were measured in sera obtained at the time of diagnosis of HCC, in 92 patients with HCC < or = 2 cm in diameter who were treated between 1990 and 1998. The degrees of tumor differentiation and angiographically-evaluated hypervascularity were compared between patients infected with HCV type 1 and those with type 2. Survival, time to recurrence, and patterns of recurrence after initial treatment also were compared. On pathologic evaluation, 6 of 21 HCC (28.6%) in patients with HCV type 2 were well-differentiated, whereas 28 of 48 HCC (58.3%) in patients with HCV type 1 were well-differentiated (P = 0.0229). HCC in patients with HCV type 2 showed hypervascularity more frequently than HCC in patients with HCV type 1, with tumor staining evident by digital subtraction arteriography in 17 of 22 patients with HCV type 2 (77.3%) vs. 20 of 50 in patients with HCV type 1 (40.0%, P = 0.0036). Survival and overall recurrence rates were similar in patients infected with HCV type 1 and with HCV type 2 (P = 0.5537). In the analyses of patterns of recurrence, recurrences in patients infected with HCV type 2 were relatively more likely to be intrahepatic metastases (P = 0.0342), that was closely related to the differentiation of HCC. Multicentric occurrence of HCC was a more frequent type of recurrence in patients with HCV type 1 (P = 0.1619), and infection of HCV type 1 was an independent factor for multicentric occurrence in multivariate analysis (P = 0.0021). In HCC < or = 2 cm in diameter, HCV type 2 is associated with more progression of HCC than HCV type 1, whereas patients with HCV type 1 may be at higher risk for multicentric HCC occurrence after the treatment of HCC.