Percutaneous Radiofrequency Ablation Versus Repeat Hepatectomy for Recurrent Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer in the world. Partial hepatectomy is still considered as the conventional therapy for HCC. Intrahepatic recurrence of HCC after partial hepatectomy is common and was reported to be more than 77% within 5 years after surgery. Repeat hepatectomy is an effective treatment for intrahepatic HCC recurrence, with a 5-year survival rate of 19.4-56%. This is comparable to the survival after initial hepatectomy for HCC. Unfortunately, repeat hepatectomy could be carried out only in a small proportion of patients with HCC recurrence (10.4-31%), either because of the poor functional liver reserve or because of widespread intrahepatic recurrence. In the past two decades, percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (PRFA) has emerged as a new treatment modality and has attracted great interest because of its effectiveness and safety for small HCC (≤ 5.0 cm). Studies using PRFA to treat recurrent HCC after partial hepatectomy reported a 3-year survival rate of 62-68%, which is comparable to those achieved by surgery. PRFA is particularly suitable to treat recurrent HCC after partial hepatectomy because these tumors are usually detected when they are small and PRFA causes the least deterioration of liver function in the patients. To the best of our knowledge, there has been no report published in the medical literature comparing the efficacy of repeat hepatectomy with PRFA for recurrent HCC. The aim of this retrospective study is to compare the outcome of repeat hepatectomy with PRFA for small recurrent HCC after partial hepatectomy.