Purpose: The primary objective was to determine the efficacy of a newly designed preoperative chemotherapy regimen in an attempt to improve the cure rate of children with high-risk hepatoblastoma.
Patients and methods: High risk was defined as follows: tumor in all liver sections (ie, Pretreatment Extension IV [PRETEXT-IV]), or vascular invasion (portal vein [P+], three hepatic veins [V+]), or intra-abdominal extrahepatic extension (E+), or metastatic disease, or alpha-fetoprotein less than 100 ng/mL at diagnosis. Patients were treated with alternating cycles of cisplatin and carboplatin plus doxorubicin (preoperatively, n = 7; postoperatively, n = 3) and delayed tumor resection.
Results: Of the 151 patients (150 evaluable for response) 118 (78.7%) achieved a partial response to chemotherapy. Complete resection of the liver tumor could be achieved in 115 patients (76.2%) either by partial hepatectomy (55.6%) or by liver transplantation (20.6%). In 106 children (70.2%), complete resection of all tumor lesions (including metastases) was achieved. Among the patients with initial lung metastases, 52.2% achieved complete remission of the lung lesions with chemotherapy alone. In half of the patients with initial PRETEXT-IV tumor as the only high-risk feature, the tumor could be completely resected with partial hepatectomy. Event-free (EFS) and overall survival (OS) estimates at 3 years were 65% (95% CI, 57% to 73%) and 69% (95% CI, 62% to 77%) for the whole group. EFS and OS for all patients with PRETEXT-IV tumor were 68% and 69%, respectively, and they were 56% and 62%, respectively, for patients with metastasis.
Conclusion: The applied treatment rendered a great proportion of tumors resectable, and, in comparison with previously published results, led to an improved survival in patients with high-risk hepatoblastoma.