Repeat hepatic resection combined with intraoperative radiofrequency ablation versus repeat hepatic resection alone for recurrent and multiple hepatocellular carcinoma patients meeting the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A: A propensity score-matched analysis

Background: The surgical indications and therapeutic strategies for early-stage multifocal and recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (rHCC) remain controversial. This study compared the long-term outcome of patients with recurrent and multifocal HCC meeting the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage A with repeat hepatectomy (RH) and RH combined with intraoperative radiofrequency ablation (RFA).

Methods: A total of 109 consecutive patients with intrahepatic early-stage multifocal rHCC within BCLC stage A following RH or RH + RFA were retrospectively collected from April 2010 to May 2020. Propensity score matching, subgroup analysis, and univariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Overall survival after recurrence (rOS) and recurrence-free survival after recurrence (rRFS) were calculated by Kaplan-Meier analysis.

Results: The 1-, 3-, and 5-year rOS and rRFS of the combination group and the RH group were similar (p = .699; p = .587, respectively). The similar results also appeared in matched population. Subgroup analyses indicated that there was no significant difference between patients with two tumors and three tumors, but the RH group was associated with better rRFS than the combination group for patients whose tumors were located in the same lobe (p = .045). Multivariate analysis revealed that time to recurrence (TTR) ≤ 2 years and intrahepatic metastasis (IM) pathologically were independent risk factors.

Conclusions: For multifocal rHCC patients meeting the BCLC stage A, tumor which is difficult to be surgically resected could be treated by RFA in order to avoid complications or bleeding. Tumors which were located in the same lobe may be more suitable to be treated by RH alone.