[Clinical evaluation of a recurrent mode after treatment in patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma]

A total of 96 patients with small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with a maximal diameter of below 2 cm were analyzed according to recurrent factors and recurrent modes after the first treatment. In this study, recurrences were divided into two groups based on the style of recurrences provisionally: intrahepatic metastases (IM, 35 cases) and multicentric recurrences (MC, 22 cases). In patients with IM, the majority of recurrences were observed within 2 years after the first treatment and the primary HCC lesions had strong relation to the degrees of malignancy. On the other hands, there were no association with recurrent intervals and the degrees of malignancy, although the recurrent rate was high in patients with anti-HCV in MC group. The prognosis after the second treatment in MC group was superior to that in IM group (p < 0.05). These results indicate MC group have a good prognosis if early detection and the second accurate treatment are performed.