Prognostic impact of anatomical resection on early and late intrahepatic recurrence in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Background/Purpose Little has been addressed regarding the impact of the type of resection, which can be anatomical or nonanatomical, for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), from the viewpoint of early (≤2-year) and late (>2-year) intrahepatic recurrence. The aim of the present study was to investigate this issue. Methods Between 1990 and 2004, we performed 365 potentially curative liver resections. Among these, 233 patients with a solitary tumor were the subjects of this study. They were classified into two groups: anatomical resection ( n = 106) and nonanatomical resection ( n = 127). We evaluated the following outcomes: (1) early and late recurrence rates; (2) topography of the recurrent tumors; and (3) risk factors for early recurrence. Results The early recurrence rate after anatomical resection was significantly lower than that after nonanatomical resection: recurrence rates at 1 and 2 years were 13.8% and 29.8%, respectively, in the former group; while they were 22.6% and 46.3%, respectively, in the latter group ( P = 0.01; log-rank test). However, late recurrence rates were similar in the two groups ( P = 0.36). Local recurrence was observed in 25 of the 89 patients with intrahepatic recurrence after nonanatomical resection (28%), whereas it was observed in 3 of the 64 patients with intrahepatic recurrence after anatomical resection (5%), showing a significantly lower local recurrence rate in the anatomical resection group ( P = 0.0002). Cox multivariate analysis identified the type of resection employed as one of the variables contributing to early HCC recurrence (nonanatomical resection: hazard ratio, 1.84; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–3.37). Conclusions Anatomical resection would be a more appropriate strategy than nonanatomical resection for preventing early intrahepetic recurrence in patients with solitary HCC. However, the type of resection has no significant influence on late recurrence.