title: Recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma successfully treated with laparoscopic thermal ablation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Aggressive treatment of intrahepatic recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) increases patients' survival. This study aimed to evaluate laparoscopic thermal ablation (TA) in the treatment of intrahepatic HCC recurrences.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective analysis was performed on 88 patients (REC group) who underwent laparoscopic TA after prior TA (66 patients.) or partial hepatic resection (HR) (22 patients) as initial local treatment. Another 170 patients with primary HCC tumors (PRIM group) were regarded as the control group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The postoperative morbidity rates were similar for the patients with prior TA (18%) and those with prior HR (21%) (nonsignificant difference [NS]). The overall survival rates were not significantly different between the two groups (3-year survival rates of 59 and 78%, respectively; P = 0.1662). Moreover, the disease-free survival (DFS) rates did not differ significantly between the patients with prior TA and those with prior HR (3-year DFS of 21 and 8%, respectively; P = 0.1911). The incidences of morbidity in the whole REC (21%) and PRIM (20%) groups were similar (P = NS), and no mortality occurred in either group (0%). The cumulative 3-year survival rate was 63% in the REC group and 59% in the PRIM group (P = 0.5739), whereas the 3-year DFS rate was 17% in the REC group and 22% in the PRIM group (P = 0.5266).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Laparoscopic TA can be performed safely and may be effective for intrahepatic HCC recurrence after prior TA or HR. It leads to survival and DFS rates similar to those obtained using laparoscopic TA for primary HCC without increasing morbidity. Laparoscopic TA could be proposed as first-line treatment of intrahepatic HCC recurrence for selected patients.
authors: UOC di Chirurgia 2, A.O. San Paolo, Dipartimento di Medicina, Chirurgia ed Odontoiatria, Università degli Studi di Milano, via A. di Rudini 8, 20142, Milan, Italy. rsantambrogio@mclink.it
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Santambrogio
authors: Mara
authors: M
authors: Costa
authors: Matteo
authors: M
authors: Barabino
authors: Massimo
authors: M
authors: Zuin
authors: Emanuela
authors: E
authors: Bertolini
authors: Francesca
authors: F
authors: De Filippi
authors: Savino
authors: S
authors: Bruno
authors: Enrico
authors: E
authors: Opocher
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000601:surgery*; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006979:Hyperthermia, Induced / Q000379:methods*; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D007902:Length of Stay; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000601:surgery; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional