Microscopic vascular invasion may not be associated with survival of patients undergoing resection for solitary hepatoma of ≤ 2 cm

To determine the impact of microvascular invasion (MVI) on outcome in patients with solitary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of ≤ 2 cm undergoing liver resection (LR). This retrospective study enrolled consecutive patients between 2007-2019 with newly diagnosed solitary HCC ≤ 2 cm who were undergoing LR at our institution. Overall survival (OS) and recurrent-free survival (RFS) were compared between patients with or without MVI. Of the 229 patients included in this study, 71 had MVI. The median follow-up period was 28.8 months (interquartile range: 13.5-70.1). Although the 90-day mortality rate was 0, 18 deaths occurred during the study, and the 5-year survival rate was 87.1%. Tumor recurrence occurred in 45 cases, and 5-year RFS was 71.9%. The presence or absence of MVI did not significantly affect the OS and RFS rates (log rank test, p = 0.10 and 0.38, respectively). In univariate and multivariate analysis, the presence of MVI was not associated with OS and RFS. The presence of MVI was not associated with OS and RFS in patients with solitary HCC ≤ 2 cm who underwent LR in this cohort.