The Necessity Of Prophylactic Transarterial Chemoembolization After Radical Resection Of Small Liver Cancer?

Purpose : To clarify the necessity of prophylactic transarterial chemoembolization(p TACE) after radical resection for small liver cancer(≤3.0cm).Methods and materials:Consecutive 119 patients with small liver cancer in Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from May 2009 to May 2014 were retrospectively studied. 87 patients were performed radical resection alone, while 32 patients received p TACE after radical resection. Kaplan-Meier method was performed to evaluate the OS(overall survival) and RFS(recurrence free survival). Cox regression analysis was used to find the related factors on OS and RFS.Results:No statistically significant difference was found in the 1-year, 2-year and 3-year OS of the two groups(P>0.05). In the group of p TACE,1-year, 2-year and 3-year RFS were 80.0%,45.9% and 40.2% respectively, with a median RFS of 22.3 months. In the group of radical resection alone, 1-year, 2-year and 3-year RFS were 86.3%, 75.2% and 65.2% respectively,with a median RFS of 54.9 months. There were statistically significant difference on RFS between two groups(P=0.02). Preoperative GGT(γ-glutamyl transpeptadase), pathological type were correlated to OS(P=0.049,0.010). Patients treated with postoperative p TACE gained worse RFS(P=0.008).Conclusions:Postoperative p TACE not only failed to improve survival, but increased the rate of recurrence in small liver cancer. There is no necessity of p TACE for small liver cancer patients after hepatectomy.