• Taku Aoki, Norihiro Kokudo, Yutaka Matsuyama, Namiki Izumi, Takafumi Ichida, Masatoshi Kudo, Yonson Ku, Michiie Sakamoto, Osamu Nakashima, Osamu Matsui, Masatoshi Makuuchi, and Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan.
• *Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery Division, Artificial Organ and Transplantation Division, Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan †Department of Biostatistics, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan ‡Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red-Cross Hospital, Musashino, Japan §Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital, Izunokuni, Japan ¶Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osaka Sayama, Japan ‖Department of Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan **Department of Pathology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan ††Department of Clinical Laboratory Medicine, Kurume University Hospital, Kurume, Japan ‡‡Department of Radiology, Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa, Japan §§Surgery, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.
• Ann. Surg.. 2014 Mar 1;259(3):532-42.

ObjectiveThe aim of the present study was to investigate the background characteriscs of ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to clarify the true impact of tumor rupture on patient prognosis in a large patient cohort.BackgroundSpontaneous tumor rupture of HCC has been associated with a very poor patient prognosis and the current TNM staging systems classify ruptured HCC as T4 based on insufficient evidence.MethodsIn total, 1106 patients with ruptured HCC were extracted from the database of a nationwide survey conducted in Japan from 2000 to 2005. The clinicopathological parameters associated with HCC rupture were investigated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models. The survival curves for ruptured and nonruptured HCC were generated and compared to evaluate the impact of the event (rupture) itself on patient prognosis and the TNM staging systems.ResultsThe multivariate analyses showed that tumor rupture was associated with both a poor liver functional reserve and an advanced tumor status. Analyses of the survival curves stratified according to the baseline TNM staging showed that tumor rupture had an additional impact on the baseline survival curves without rupture, and the impact corresponded to the addition of 0.5 to 2 stages to the baseline tumor staging.ConclusionsThe present study suggested that tumor rupture itself had a negative impact on patient survival. However, its impact was not strong enough to cancel the effects of the other tumor-related parameters. Therefore, it may be appropriate to give additional stages to the baseline tumor staging in cases of ruptured HCC.

27 keywords...

hide…