Repeated postoperative adjuvant TACE after curative hepatectomy improves outcomes of patients with HCC

To gain a clear picture of the influence of postoperative adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) on recurrence after curative resection for HCC.

According to the inclusion criteria and the exclusion criteria, the clinical data of 118 patients with HCC at Qilu Hospital, Shan Dong University between January 2011 and August 2013, who were treated by curative hepatectomy and postoperative TACE (two groups of patients received TACE once or twice, respectively) or by curative hepatectomy alone were retrospectively studied.

The three-year survival (RFS) rate was 51.7% for the whole study population. The three-year relapse-free RFS rates were 73.0% and 55.0% for the patients who received two and one postoperative adjuvant TACE treatments, groups respectively, and 29.3% for the hepatectomy alone group. The three-year RFS of the patients who received postoperative adjuvant TACE once was significantly higher than that of the patients who received hepatectomy alone (p = .024). And the outcome of patients with two adjuvant TACE treatments was better than that of patients who received one treatment (p = .033).

Repeated postoperative adjuvant TACE seems to be a promising treatment for HCC that might delay tumor recurrence and improve the RFS rates of patients after curative hepatectomy.