Multidisciplinary HCC Treatment in Elderly : QoL and Survival Analysis

Introduction- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver malignancy. It usually develops in cirrhotic liver with high recurrence rates. More than 2/3 of patients are elderly, often excluded from surgery and follow-up protocols. Aim of this study is to evaluate whether treating HCC recurrences in resected elderly patients is advantageous or not.

Materials and methods- 126 patients, aged between 65 and 90 years, submitted to liver resection for HCC were enrolled. They were divided into three classes. Class 1 included patients submitted to major resections, Class 2 to minor resections and Class 3 to minor resections associated with thermoablation. All of them were clinically and radiologically followed up. Patients who developed recurrences (Group A) were referred to further treatments (surgery, interventional radiology or pharmacological therapy). Mortality, disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS) and quality of life (QoL) were evaluated and compared with non-recurrent patients (Group B).

Used interventional radiology means were Radiofrequency ablation (RF), microwaves ablation (MWA) or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).