title: Does the margin width influence recurrence rate in liver surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma smaller than 5 cm?
abstract: Liver surgery is considered a curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) but the importance of resection margin width remains controversial. The aim of this study is to clarify the role of 5-10 mm surgical margin width on post-operative recurrence and overall survival after resection.
  
  
  
  We analyzed recurrence rate and overall survival rate of 72 patients who underwent curative hepatic resection for HCC smaller than 5 cm with 5-10 mm surgical margin width between January 2005 and December 2014.
  
  
  
  The mean follow-up period was 36 months. Among the seventy-two patients, thirty-one (31/72; 43%) developed recurrence but only eleven (11/31; 15.3%) along the resection margin. The disease-free survival was 77.2%, 50%, 41.4% at 1, 3 and 5 years respectively, and the overall survival was 89.9%, 78.8%, 60% at 1, 3 and 5 years respectively.
  
  
  
  5-10 mm surgical resection margin for HCC smaller than 5 cm seems to be safe as a wider surgical margin because does not increase the risk of marginal recurrence and does not decrease overall survival rate. Further prospective and randomized studies are required to definitively clarify the importance of surgical margin width in hepatic resection for HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Pathology of Adult and Evolutive Age, University Hospital of Messina, Messina, Italy. currog@unime.it.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lazzara
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Navarra
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lazzara
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbera
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saitta
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Raimondo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Latteri
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Currò
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006498:Hepatectomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015996:Survival Rate