title: Outcome of patients with hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma occurring after interferon therapy.
abstract: To determine whether previous IFN therapy for chronic hepatitis C (HCV) infection influences the outcome of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 143 patients were enrolled in this study. Of 143 patients, 48 had received previous IFN therapy (IFN group) and the remaining 95 had not (untreated group). We estimated distant intrahepatic recurrence-free intervals and disease-specific survivals of the two groups by the Kaplan-Meier method and analyzed the difference by the log-rank test. Factors determining distant intrahepatic recurrence-free interval and disease-specific survival were studied by univariate and multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression model. The proportion of patients with single tumors was significantly higher in the IFN group (p = 0.026). The IFN group showed a significantly higher distant intrahepatic recurrence-free interval (p = 0.001) and disease-specific survival (p = 0.003). Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated that previous IFN therapy for chronic HCV infection was a significant independent factor for distant intrahepatic recurrence-free interval and disease-specific survival. These results indicate that previous IFN therapy reduces multicentric hepatocarcinogenesis of HCV-related HCC and improves the patients' survival.
authors.affiliation: Second Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kagoshima University, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan. cbi75530@pop02.odn.ne.jp
authors.forename: Yasuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Komorizono
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sako
authors.forename: Naruhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamasaki
authors.forename: Takuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hiwaki
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sakurai
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shibatou
authors.forename: Masahiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kohara
authors.forename: Shuhou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shigenobu
authors.forename: Sususmu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Takushi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arima
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oketani
authors.forename: Kazuaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ishibashi
authors.forename: Terukatsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arima
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D016174:Hepacivirus; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000821:virology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D016898:Interferon-alpha