title: Long-term outcomes and prognostic factors of elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing hepatectomy.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study aimed to evaluate the long-term outcomes and prognostic factors of elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing hepatectomy.
  
  
  METHODS
  From January 1983 to December 2006, 2,283 patients with HCC received hepatectomy in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. The clinicopathological data and treatment outcomes of 67 elderly HCC patients (elderly group, > or =70 years of age) and 268 patients (control group, <70 years of age) who were selected randomly from the 2216 younger patients were compared retrospectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The elderly HCC patients had lower hepatitis B surface antigen-positive rate (P < 0.001), lower rate of marked alpha-fetoprotein elevation (P = 0.004), higher infection rate of hepatitis C virus (P = 0.010), more preoperative comorbidities (P < 0.001), higher rate of tumor encapsulation (P = 0.040), and better overall survival rate (P = 0.017); whereas there were no significant differences between these two groups in other factors, including gender ratio, liver function, accompanying cirrhosis, pathological tumor-node-metastasis (pTNM) staging, satellite nodules, vascular invasion, tumor rupture, resection margin, intraoperative blood loss, incidence of postoperative complications, hospital mortality, and disease-free survival rate. Multivariate analysis showed that pTNM staging was an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival in elderly patients with HCC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HCC in the elderly was less HBV-associated, less advanced, and less aggressive. Hepatectomy for selected elderly patients with HCC possibly have a better curative effect compared with younger patients. For the elderly patients without preoperative comorbidities or with controlled comorbidities, hepatectomy is a safe and effective treatment. pTNM staging is the only independent predictor of postoperative overall survival in elderly HCC patients.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China and Department of Hepatobiliary Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Bin-Kui
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Gui-Hua
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jin-Qing
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ya-Qi
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Guo-Hui
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yun-Fei
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality; D011336:Probability; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome