The role of associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy in unresectable hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma

Overcome intraoperative difficulties of ALPPS procedure: a single-center outcomes and technical experience

Backgrounds/aims

Recently, the ALPPS (Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy) has become widely known to achieve hepatic resection by rapid future liver remnant hypertrophy, but it comes with intraoperative difficulties, followed by increased complications. This study aimed to report the outcomes of an oncology center in a low-income and middle-income country with ALPPS in patients with liver tumors and its technical variants, which were invented to overcome intraoperative difficulties of the ALPPS procedure.

Patients and methods

A retrospective analysis of patients undergoing ALPPS from September 2022 to December 2023 was performed.

Results

A total of 25 patients underwent the ALPPS procedure: 21 procedures for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 3 combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CCA), and 1 for small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SNEC). The mean postoperative stay was 29.6 ± 9.3 days (range 16-58 days). After stage 1, we counted 8 complications, all of grade II; after stage 2, the number of complications was decreased to 3:2 were of grade I and 1 were of grade IIIB. 3 (12%) patients failed to proceed to ALPPS stage 2. After a median follow-up of 9 months (range 2-25), disease recurrence has been recorded in 3 patients (12%), while 1 patient (4%) died, affected by HCC. The entire group's 2-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were 83.3% and 82.5%, respectively.

Conclusion

The ALPPS procedure is an approach for large liver tumors with small future liver remnant with acceptable OS and DFS in a low-income and middle-income country.

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy versus transarterial chemoembolization, potential conversion therapies for single huge hepatocellular carcinoma: a retrospective comparison study

BACKGROUND

The treatment efficacy of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) and hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) for huge single hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been fully documented. The aim of this study was to compare TACE and HAIC for patients with solitary nodular HCCs greater than or equal to 10 cm without vascular invasion and metastasis.

METHODS

From July 2015 to June 2020, a total of 147 patients with single nodular HCC greater than or equal to 10 cm without vascular invasion and metastasis receiving TACE ( n =77) or HAIC ( n =70) were retrospectively enrolled. The tumor response, overall survival (OS), and progression-free survival (PFS) were investigated and compared. The treatment outcome of two transarterial interventional therapies was explored.

RESULTS

The objective response rate and PFS were higher in patients who received HAIC than in those who received TACE (44.3 vs. 10.4% and 8.9 vs. 4.2 months, respectively; P =0.001 and P =0.030), whereas the disease control rate and OS were not significantly different (92.9 vs. 84.4% and 21.3 vs. 26.6 months, respectively; P =0.798 and P =0.749). The decreased levels of alpha-fetoprotein and protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist-II (PIVKA-II) in patients treated with HAIC were significantly higher than those treated with TACE ( P =0.038 and P <0.001). Multivariable analysis showed that the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index was associated with OS, whereas albumin-bilirubin grade and PIVKA-II were associated with PFS.

CONCLUSIONS

HAIC has better potential than TACE to control local tumors for huge single HCC without vascular invasion and metastasis and thus may be the preferred conversion therapy for these tumors.

Case Report: The application of associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy in patients with hepatitis b virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma after undergoing treatment with an immune checkpoint inhibitor: a report of two cases

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is often diagnosed at an unresectable stage without opportunities for curative therapy. Future liver remnant (FLR) insufficiency limits the range of patients who can undergo radical resection. Associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) can ultimately achieve short-term hypertrophy of the FLR in patients with viral hepatitis-related fibrosis/cirrhosis and R0 resection. However, the influence of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) on liver regeneration remains unknown. We report two patients diagnosed with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC)-B stage hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC who underwent pioneering ALPPS after immunotherapy without posthepatectomy liver failure (PHLF). ALPPS has been shown to be safe and feasible in patients with HCC who underwent immunotherapy previously for the first time and might provide an alternative salvage option for future conversion therapy of HCC.

Application of associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy for initially unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the safety and efficacy of associating liver partition and portal vein ligation for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) in the treatment of initially unresectable hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and to preliminarily explore the mechanism of rapid growth of the future liver remnant (FLR).

METHODS

Twenty-four patients with HBV-associated HCC who underwent ALPPS in our hospital from August 2014 to January 2021 were retrospectively studied. Propensity score matching was used to compare oncologic outcomes of patients treated with ALPPS and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). The expression of YAP and JNK in liver tissue after two stages of ALPPS were detected.

RESULTS

The median standard liver volume (SLV) was 1471.4 ml. Before second stage of ALPPS, the median FLR increased by 74.4%, and the median FLR/SLV increased from 26.1 to 41.6%. Twenty-two patients (91.7%) received staged hepatectomy after a median interval of 15 (9-24) d. The total incidence of postoperative complications in ALPPS group was 54.5%, and of Clavien-Dindo ≥ IIIb postoperative complications (requiring surgical, endoscopic or radiological intervention under general anesthesia) was 9.1%. There was no significant difference in total complications between ALPPS group and TACE group, but there were lower rate of above grade III complications in the TACE group than that in the ALPPS group. The incidence of complications was lower in laparoscopic-ALPPS than that in open surgery. In ALPPS group, the 1-year, 2-year and 5-year overall survival rate were respectively 71.4%, 33.3% and 4.8%. Interval time was an independent risk factor associated with overall survival rate. There was no significant difference in overall survival rate between ALPPS group and TACE group. For advanced HCC (BCLC stage B and C), ALPPS group was not superior to TACE group in overall survival rate. The expression of YAP and p-JNK in the residual liver tissue after second stage procedure was higher than that after first stage procedure, and the co-expression of YAP and p-JNK was observed in the residual liver tissue.

CONCLUSION

ALPPS is a safe and effective treatment for initially unresectable HBV-associated HCC. Laparoscopic technique might improve the effect of ALPPS. YAP and JNK pathway might take a role in rapid FLR increase in ALPPS procedure.

Somatic Mutation Profiles Revealed by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) in 39 Chinese Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients

The features and significance of somatic mutation profiles in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have not been completely elucidated to date. In this study, 39 tumor specimens from HCC patients were collected for gene variation analysis by next-generation sequencing (NGS), and a correlation analysis between mutated genes and clinical characteristics was also conducted. The results were compared with genome data from cBioPortal database. Our study found that T &gt; G/A &gt; C transversions (Tv) and C &gt; T/G &gt; A transitions (Ti) were dominant. The sequence variations of TP53, MUC16, MUC12, MUC4 and others, and the copy number variations (CNVs) of FGF3, TERT, and SOX2 were found to be more frequent in our cohort than in cBioPortal datasets, and they were highly enriched in pathways in cancer and participated in complex biological regulatory processes. The TP53 mutation was the key mutation (76.9%, 30/39), and the most common amino acid alteration and mutation types were p.R249S (23.5%) and missense mutation (82.3%) in the TP53 variation. Furthermore, TP53 had more co-mutations with MUC17, NBPF10, and AHNAK2. However, there were no significant differences in clinical characteristics between HCC patients with mutant TP53 and wild-type TP53, and the overall survival rate between treatment via precision medication guided by NGS and that via empirical medication (logrank p = 0.181). Therefore, the role of NGS in the guidance of personalized targeted therapy, solely based on NGS, may be limited. Multi-center, large sample, prospective studies are needed to further verify these results.