Objective: To evaluate the need for a preoperative tumor biopsy of liver lesions suspicious for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Summary background data: With advances in liver imaging, the results of recent studies have suggested a very high accuracy of preoperative evaluation of liver masses suspicious of HCC, making preoperative tumor biopsy unnecessary.
Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of all liver resections for HCC at the Toronto General and Mt. Sinai Hospitals, Toronto, between October 1994 and December 1998.
Results: Sixty patients underwent 65 liver resections without a preoperative liver biopsy. The median age was 61 years. Sixty percent of the patients had cirrhosis and 38.5% had noncirrhotic chronic hepatitis. HCC was confirmed histologically in the surgical specimen in 63 of the 65 cases (96.9%). Both patients without HCC had a significant risk factor for HCC (chronic hepatitis C and alcohol in one and chronic hepatitis B and previous resection for HCC in the other). The lesions were 2 cm and 2.7 cm in diameter, and the alpha-fetoprotein level was low (<5 and 22 ng/mL, respectively). In such patients, with tumor 3 cm or smaller and an alpha-fetoprotein level less than 100 ng/mL (10 patients), the false-positive rate for the preoperative diagnosis was 2/10 (20%).
Conclusions: Preoperative diagnosis of HCC was highly accurate in lesions larger than 3 cm. Tumor biopsy is unnecessary in these patients. However, in a subgroup of patients with lesions less than 3 cm, particularly those with alpha-fetoprotein levels less than 100 ng/mL, there is a higher false-positive diagnostic rate, and tumor biopsy should be considered.