ANGIOGRAPHIC STUDY AFTER HEPATECTOMY IN PATIENTS WITH HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

One hundred and nineteen patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who had had an angiography several weeks (4-9 weeks) after hepatectomy were investigated. In 15 cases (13%) tumor stains were observed in the hepatic remnant. The positivity of tumor stain was signifficantly high in cases of portal invasion, intrahepatic metastasis and infiltration to the tumor capsule as pathological factors had been found in the primary tumor. There was an increasing tendency to positive tumor stain as the clinical stage become higher, and a significant difference was noted between patient groups of Stage I and II and Stage IV. In addition, the frequency of positive tumor stain was high in patients whose preoperative AFP level were more than 21 ng/ml. The present study suggested the development of intrahepatic micrometastasis which were could not have detected with pre- or intra-operative image analyses. Therefore, the post operative angiography is an inevitable method to confirm the curability. Further, it enables us to make a prophylactic treatment of the remnant which is of useful for a postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy.