Risk factors associated with early and late recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma: a single institution's experience with 398 consecutive patients.

BACKGROUND: Surgical resection is an important curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, some patients experience an unexpected recurrence even after hepatectomy. The present study aimed to investigate risk factors and predictive criteria for early and late recurrence of HCC after resection.
METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 398 Chinese patients who received curative resection for HCC was conducted. Patients were divided into three groups: without recurrence, early recurrence, and late recurrence. Prognostic factors and predictive criteria for early and late recurrence were statistically analyzed.
RESULTS: The cumulative recurrence-free survival rates at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years were 75.5%, 58.2%, 54.1%, 40.5%, and 28.7%, respectively. The distribution of the time to recurrence suggested that recurrence could be divided into early phase (before 2 years; n=164) and late phase (after 2 years; n=83). Cox's multivariate proportional hazard model analysis revealed that multiplicity of tumors (P=0.004) and venous infiltration (P=0.002) were independent risk factors associated with early recurrence. In contrast, indocyanine green retention rate at 15 minutes (P=0.007), serum albumin level (P=0.045), and HBeAg status (P=0.028) proved to be significant independent adverse prognostic factors for late recurrence. Patients with at least 1 of the 2 early recurrence risk factors (multiplicity of tumors ≥ 2 and venous infiltration) or with 2 or more late recurrence risk factors are often susceptible to recurrence (P=1.36e-4 and 1.0e-6, respectively).
CONCLUSIONS: Early and late recurrences correlate with different risk factors and predictive criteria. Early recurrence primarily results from intrahepatic metastases, while late recurrence may be multicentric in origin.