Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 1, 2026
The Influence of Liver Resection on Intrahepatic Tumor Growth
Published on: April 9, 2016
Effect of body composition on outcomes after hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma
Shinji Itoh1, Ken Shirabe, Yoshihiro Matsumoto
1Department of Surgery and Science, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, itoshin@surg2.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp.
Purpose:
To evaluate the effect of body composition on outcomes after hepatic resection for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods:
We performed 190 hepatic resections for HCC and divided the patients into 2 groups on the basis of visceral fat area (VFA), assessed by computed tomographic measurement at the level of the umbilicus, into high VFA (H-VFA) (n = 106) and low VFA (L-VFA) (n = 84) groups. We compared the surgical outcomes between the two groups.
Results:
L-VFA was significantly correlated with a lower body mass index, sarcopenia, lower serum albumin, and liver cirrhosis. There was no difference in the incidence of postoperative complications and mortality between the 2 groups. Patients in the L-VFA group had a significantly poorer prognosis than those in the H-VFA group in terms of both overall (P = 0.043) and recurrence-free (P = 0.001) survival. The results of multivariate analysis showed that sarcopenia rather than L-VFA was an independent and prognostic indicator after hepatic resection with HCC.
Conclusions:
Body composition is an important factor affecting cancer outcomes after hepatic resection for HCC in Japan.
