Outcome of patients with hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma occurring after interferon therapy.
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.
Komorizono
Yasuji
Y
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kagoshima University, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima 890-8520, Japan. cbi75530@pop02.odn.ne.jp
Sako
Katsumi
K
Yamasaki
Naruhiro
N
Hiwaki
Takuya
T
Sakurai
Kazuhiro
K
Shibatou
Toshihiko
T
Maeda
Masahiko
M
Kohara
Kazunori
K
Shigenobu
Shuhou
S
Hasegawa
Sususmu
S
Arima
Takushi
T
Oketani
Makoto
M
Ishibashi
Kazuaki
K
Arima
Terukatsu
T
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
D016898:Interferon-alpha