Multimodal adjuvant treatment and liver transplantation for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. A pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Orthotopic liver transplantation has been used in a large number of patients with primary liver cancer because it increases the possibilities of resection of large tumors. Despite isolated cases of prolonged survival, however, the results of liver transplantation for advanced tumors have been universally disappointing because of high rates of tumor recurrence. In an attempt to reduce the recurrence rate, a pilot study testing a multimodal adjuvant treatment in patients undergoing liver replacement for hepatocellular carcinoma was undertaken. METHODS: The treatment consisted of preoperative hepatic arterial chemoembolization (iodized oil, doxorubicin, and gelatin sponge) and radiotherapy (5 Gy in one fraction immediately before surgery), and postoperative systemic chemotherapy with mitoxantrone. Nine patients entered this study. The tumor was solitary in two cases (5 cm and 8 cm) and multifocal in seven cases (2-9 nodules, 3-9 cm). The postoperative TNM stages were II in one case, III in one case, and IVA in seven cases. RESULTS: Chemoembolization and radiotherapy were performed in seven cases each (five patients had both treatments). All patients underwent liver transplantation with conventional immunosuppression. One patient died of heart failure 4 days after surgery. The remaining eight patients received 4 to 10 courses of chemotherapy (mean 9). The main toxicity of chemotherapy was leucopenia. Two patients died of recurrence: one at 7 months and one at 11 months. Six patients are alive, five of them without evidence of disease, with a mean follow-up of 30 months (range 16-45) after liver transplantation. The 3-year actuarial survival is 64%. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that an aggressive adjuvant therapy can be used in association with liver transplantation in the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma without increased mortality and suggest that such a protocol could be effective in preventing tumor recurrence.

Portal vein embolization: utility for inducing left hepatic lobe hypertrophy before surgery.

Right portal vein embolization (PVE) was performed in patients in need of wide hepatectomy to induce preoperative hypertrophy of the future remnant liver (FRL), which would have been insufficient for safe resection. PVE was achieved with cyanoacrylate or gelatin sponges by using a percutaneous subxiphoid approach in 10 patients with tumors in noncirrhotic liver. Surgery was performed in nine patients 17-48 days (mean, 34 days) after PVE. Computed tomographic liver volumetric studies were performed before embolization and before surgery. Clinical and biologic tolerance of PVE was excellent except in one case. Histopathologic studies showed occlusion of portal veins with minimal parenchymal ischemia in eight of nine patients. The FRL volume increased by 64%, which represented 31% of the preresection volume of the liver. Better hypertrophy was seen after cyanoacrylate embolization. The authors conclude that PVE is safe and well tolerated and induces marked hypertrophy of the unembolized parenchyma in noncirrhotic patients. This hypertrophy allows hepatectomy to be performed under safe conditions when the FRL volume is initially insufficient.

[Induction of hypertrophy of a small left hepatic lobe by preoperative right portal embolization, preceding extended right hepatectomy]. / Induction d'une hypertrophie d'un petit lobe gauche hépatique avant hépatectomie droite élargie, par embolisation portale droite pré-opératoire.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the compensatory hypertrophy of the left lobe of the liver, induced by a preoperative right portal embolization (PORPE), and then the feasibility of a right extended hepatectomy. The small size of the left lobe did not initially permit such a resection. Eight patients (mean age: 62 years) underwent PORPE for cancer between September 1987 and December 1991. They represented 4% of the 187 patients undergoing hepatectomy for liver cancer during the same period. The PORPE was conducted by percutaneous access and puncture of the left portal vein (Rex's recessus). The clinical and laboratory safety were good, with fewer adverse effects than with arterial chemo-embolization. The mean increased volume of the left lobe, four weeks after PORPE, was 54% (range: 32-100%) allowing hepatectomy to be performed. The post-operative course of these right extended hepatectomies was uneventful. In conclusion, we think that PORPE needs a careful technique but that it is well tolerated and effective to induce hypertrophy of the future remnant left lobe. It allows resection of some initially unresectable tumors. This technique warrants further development.