Outcomes of hepatoblastoma in the Indian context

A comprehensive review and critical appraisal of published and grey literature was undertaken to identify current treatment practices and outcomes of children with hepatoblastoma in India. Eight single-centre studies with 157 patients (range five to 36 patients in each study) were included. Pre-operative chemotherapy (mainly cisplatin and doxorubicin) followed by surgical resection and additional chemotherapy was the usual practice. There was no stratification of treatment by risk group in any of the studies. The median event-free survival ranged from 33-100%. The two main reasons for treatment failure were treatment-related mortality (0-50%) and progression of disease (0-30%).