title: Percutaneous Irreversible Electroporation: Long-term survival analysis of 71 patients with inoperable malignant hepatic tumors.
abstract: Aim of this retrospective analysis was to evaluate the survival times after percutaneous irreversible electroporation (IRE) in inoperable liver tumors not amenable to thermal ablation. 71 patients (14 females, 57 males, median age 63.5 ± 10.8 years) with 103 liver tumors were treated in 83 interventions using IRE (NanoKnife®system). The median tumor short-axis diameter was 1.9 cm (minimum 0.4 cm, maximum 4.5 cm). 35 patients had primary liver tumors and 36 patients had liver metastases. The Kaplan-Meier method was employed to calculate the survival rates, and the different groups were compared using multivariate log-rank and Wilcoxon tests. The overall median survival time was 26.3 months; the median survival of patients with primary land secondary liver cancer did not significantly differ (26.8 vs. 19.9 months; p = 0.41). Patients with a tumor diameter >3 cm (p < 0.001) or more than 2 lesions (p < 0.005) died significantly earlier than patients with smaller or fewer tumors. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and Child-Pugh class B or C cirrhosis died significantly earlier than patients with Child-Pugh class A (p < 0.05). Patients with very early stage HCC survived significantly longer than patients with early stage HCC with a median survival of 22.3 vs. 13.7 months (p < 0.05).
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Niessen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thumann
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beyer
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pregler
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Teufel
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: E M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stroszczynski
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University Hospital Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wiggermann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods; D018274:Electroporation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D047368:Tumor Burden