Prognosis of Fibrolamellar Carcinoma Compared to Non-cirrhotic Conventional Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background Fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC) and conventional hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) share the same American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging. The worse survival with HCC is attributed to the underlying cirrhosis.The aim of this study was to compare stage-matched prognosis after resection of FLC and non-cirrhotic HCC. Methods Outcomes after resection of 65 consecutive patients with FLC and 158 non-cirrhotic patients with HCC were compared. Patients were staged according to the 7th edition AJCC staging. Results The AJCC stage distributions for FLC and HCC demonstrated a predominance of stage IV disease in FLC and stage I in HCC (FLC stage I—23 %, II—15 %, III—15 %, IV—46 % vs. HCC stage I—42 %, II—32 %, III—20 %, IV—6 %, p