Hepatic resection assisted by ablative therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background/Aims: We attempted combinations of resection and ablative therapies (ethanol injection (EI) or radiofrequency therapy (RFA)) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Methodology: Thirty-one patients with naive HCC treated from January 2000 to June 2010 were enrolled. All were tumor node metastasis stage III and the number of tumors was countable (≤5). Twelve were treated with resection assisted with an ablative therapy (combination group) and 19 with resection only (resection group). Clinical backgrounds and prognosis were investigated. Results: The total scores for up-to-seven criteria were larger in the combination group than in the resection group (p=0.01), while other clinical background findings were not significantly different between the groups. In the combination group, 10 cases underwent resection combined with RFA and 2 with EI. The 1- and 3-year survival rates were not significantly different between the groups (combination group, 88.2% and 88.2%, respectively; resection group, 90.9% and 80.8%, respectively). There were no severe complications. Conclusion: Our results indicate that combination therapy is a therapeutic option for cases with countable HCCs who are difficult to treat by resection only.