Evaluation of the clinical features of HCC following hepatectomy for different stages of HCC

Transcriptomics Associates Molecular Features with 18F-Fluorocholine PET/CT Imaging Phenotype and Its Potential Relationship to Survival in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Studies involving transcriptomics have revealed multiple molecular subtypes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has also identified distinct molecular imaging subtypes, including those with increased and decreased choline metabolism as measured by the tissue uptake of the radiopharmaceutical ¹⁸F-fluorocholine. Gene signatures reflecting the molecular heterogeneity of HCC may identify the biological and clinical significance of these imaging subtypes. In this study, 41 patients underwent ¹⁸F-fluorocholine PET/CT, followed by tumor resection and gene expression profiling. Over- and underexpressed components of previously published gene signatures were evaluated for enrichment between tumors with high and low ¹⁸F-fluorocholine uptake using gene set analysis. Significant gene sets were enumerated by FDR based on phenotype permutation. Associations with overall survival were analyzed by univariate and multivariate proportional hazards regression. Ten gene sets related to HCC were significantly associated with high tumor ¹⁸F-fluorocholine uptake at FDR q < 0.05, including those from three different clinical molecular classification systems and two prognostic signatures for HCC that showed predictive value in the study cohort. Tumor avidity for ¹⁸F-fluorocholine was associated with favorable characteristics based on these signatures with lower mortality based on survival analysis (HR 0.36; 95% confidence interval, 0.14-0.95). Tumors demonstrating high ¹⁸F-fluorocholine uptake were also enriched for genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid metabolism, peroxisome, bile acid metabolism, xenobiotic metabolism, and adipogenesis. These results provide a pathobiological framework to further evaluate ¹⁸F-fluorocholine PET/CT as a molecular and prognostic classifier in HCC. SIGNIFICANCE: A pathobiological framework for HCC brings together multiple prognostically relevant gene signatures via convergence with ¹⁸F-fluorocholine PET/CT imaging phenotype.

Systematic review of the outcomes of surgical resection for intermediate and advanced Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage hepatocellular carcinoma: A critical appraisal of the evidence

AIM

To perform a systematic review to determine the survival outcomes after curative resection of intermediate and advanced hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC).

METHODS

A systematic review of the published literature was performed using the PubMed database from 1^st January 1999 to 31^st Dec 2014 to identify studies that reported outcomes of liver resection as the primary curative treatment for Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage B or C HCC. The primary end point was to determine the overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) of liver resection of HCC in BCLC stage B or C in patients with adequate liver reserve (i.e., Child’s A or B status). The secondary end points were to assess the morbidity and mortality of liver resection in large HCC (defined as lesions larger than 10 cm in diameter) and to compare the OS and DFS after surgical resection of solitary vs multifocal HCC.

RESULTS

We identified 74 articles which met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed in this systematic review. Analysis of the resection outcomes of the included studies were grouped according to (1) BCLC stage B or C HCC, (2) Size of HCC and (3) multifocal tumors. The median 5-year OS of BCLC stage B was 38.7% (range 10.0-57.0); while the median 5-year OS of BCLC stage C was 20.0% (range 0.0-42.0). The collective median 5-year OS of both stages was 27.9% (0.0-57.0). In examining the morbidity and mortality following liver resection in large HCC, the pooled RR for morbidity [RR (95%CI) = 1.00 (0.76-1.31)] and mortality [RR (95%CI) = 1.15 (0.73-1.80)] were not significant. Within the spectrum of BCLC B and C lesions, tumors greater than 10 cm were reported to have median 5-year OS of 33.0% and multifocal lesions 54.0%.

CONCLUSION

Indication for surgical resection should be extended to BCLC stage B lesions in selected patients. Further studies are needed to stratify stage C lesions for resection.

Liver resection for HCC outside the BCLC criteria

PURPOSE

Surgical resection still remains the mainstay of management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). At present, Barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) staging is the most widely used tool to guide treatment; however, criteria for offering surgery as curative treatment are restrictive. We aimed to evaluate short-term and long-term outcomes of HCC after resection, even for patients outside BCLC criteria for resection.

METHODS

Data was collected from a prospective database from GI and HPB Department, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. Study period was from June 2010 to June 2015.

RESULTS

One hundred three patients of HCC were operated during this period, of which 100 underwent complete resection. Patients were staged according to the BCLC classification (BCLC stage A-25, B-64, C-11). Preoperative therapy was administered in 36 (36%) patients. At median follow-up of 21 months, overall 3-year survival for BCLC stages A, B, and C was 55.2, 62.7, and 37.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

In today's era of liver transplantation, resection (especially for larger tumors) may still be the preferred treatment option, considering problems and difficulties in donor availability, cost, and long waiting list for liver transplant. With evolving modern surgical technique, long-term survival benefit can be achieved with acceptable safety in most BCLC stage B and selected BCLC stage C patients and those who either do not fit into the transplant criteria or cannot afford transplant. Carefully designed trials are required to further elucidate these results.

Tumor stage and primary treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma at a large tertiary hospital in China: A real-world study

The current clinical reality of tumor stages and primary treatments of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is poorly understood. This study reviewed the distribution of tumor stages and primary treatment modalities among a large population of patients with primary HCC. Medical records of patients treated between January 2003 and October 2013 for primary HCC at our tertiary hospital in China were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 6241 patients were analyzed. The distribution of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stages was as follows: stage 0/A, 28.9%; stage B, 16.2%; stage C, 53.6%; stage D, 1.3%. The distribution of Hong Kong Liver Cancer (HKLC) stages was as follows: stage I, 8.4%; stage IIa, 1.5%; stage IIb, 29.0%; stage IIIa, 10.0%; stage IIIb, 33.6%; stage IVa, 3.4%; stage IVb, 2.5%; stage Va, 0.2%; stage Vb, 11.4%. The most frequent therapy was hepatic resection for patients with BCLC-0/A/B disease, and transarterial chemoembolization for patients with BCLC-C disease. Both these treatments were the most frequent for patients with HKLC I to IIIb disease, while systemic chemotherapy was the most frequent first-line therapy for patients with HKLC IVa or IVb disease. The most frequent treatment for patients with HKLC Va/Vb disease was traditional Chinese medicine. In conclusion, Prevalences of BCLC-B and -C disease, and of HKLC I to IIIb disease, were relatively high in our patient population. Hepatic resection and transarterial chemoembolization were frequent first-line therapies.

Liver resection for intermediate hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors in China. The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system is regarded as the gold standard staging system for HCC, classifying HCC as early, intermediate, or advanced. For intermediate HCC, trans-catheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is recommended as the optimal strategy by the BCLC guideline. This review investigates whether liver resection is better than TACE for intermediate HCC. Based on published studies, we compare the survival benefits and complications of liver resection and TACE for intermediate HCC. We also compare the survival benefits of liver resection in early and intermediate HCC. We find that liver resection can achieve better or at least comparable survival outcomes compared with TACE for intermediate HCC; however, we do not observe a significant difference between liver resection and TACE in terms of safety and morbidity. We conclude that liver resection may improve the short- and long-term survival of carefully selected intermediate HCC patients, and the procedure may be safely performed in the management of intermediate HCC.

Partial liver resection results in a significantly better long-term survival than locally ablative procedures even in elderly patients

PURPOSE

The number of elderly patients with HCC will increase worldwide in the next years. Therefore, surgeons need to reassess clinical algorithms for the treatment of patients with HCC. We reevaluated a cohort of patients treated in the last 10 years at our hospital, with emphasis on long-term results and age.

METHOD

A prospectively recorded consecutive series of all patients treated in between January 1995 and December 2014 with curative intent either by partial liver resection or by ablative therapy was analysed.

RESULTS

At the time of diagnosis, 232 patients were younger than 70 years and 127 patients were aged 70 years and over. In the latter group, solitary tumours, absence of liver cirrhosis and resection therapy were more frequent compared to younger patients. Charlson index, AFP-negative tumours and CLIP score were equally distributed in both groups. Observed survival of older and younger patients was similar but after partial liver resection, younger patients had a better survival than elderly patients, whereas survival in patients treated with ablation was similar in both groups. In the univariate analysis, long-term survival of patients aged 70 years and over was influenced by treatment procedure, number of lesions, liver cirrhosis, Child's stage and CLIP score. In the multivariate analysis, only treatment procedure and CLIP score were identified as independent predictors of observed survival, and comorbidity was not.

CONCLUSION

In patients aged 70 years and over, long-term prognosis is independently influenced by CLIP score and treatment procedure and other findings have only minor influence on long-term survival.

Chronic Liver Disease and the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma by [(18)F]fluorocholine PET/CT

Positron emission tomography (PET) using the radiopharmaceutical tracer fluorine-18 fluorocholine (FCh) can elucidate tumors based on differences in choline phospholipid metabolism between tumor and surrounding tissue. The feasibility of detecting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using FCh PET has been shown despite constitutively high parenchymal choline metabolism in the liver. Since HCC frequently develops in the setting of chronic liver disease, we comparatively evaluated FCh PET/CT between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients with HCC to investigate the effects of hepatic dysfunction on tumor detection and the tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) of FCh uptake. FCh PET/CT was performed prospectively in 22 consecutive patients with HCC (7 newly diagnosed, 15 previously treated). Of these 22 patients, 14 were cirrhotic and 8 non-cirrhotic. Standardized uptake value (SUV) measurements were obtained by region of interest analysis of the PET images. Tumor FCh uptake and the TBR were compared between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients. Liver lesions were confirmed to be HCC by biopsy in 10 patients and by Barcelona criteria in 4 patients. There was correspondingly increased liver tumor FCh uptake in 13/14 of those patients, and iso-intense tumor FCh uptake (TBR 0.94) in one non-cirrhotic patient with newly diagnosed HCC. FCh PET/CT also showed metastatic disease without local tumor recurrence in 2 previously treated patients, and was negative in 6 treated patients without tumor recurrence by radiographic and clinical follow-up. Tumor maximum SUV ranged from 6.4 to 15.3 (mean 12.1) and liver TBR ranged from 0.94 to 2.1 (mean 1.6), with no significant differences between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients (SUVmax 11.9 vs. 12.2, p = 0.83; TBR 1.71 vs. 1.51, p = 0.29). Liver parenchyma mean SUV was significantly lower in cirrhotic patients (6.4 vs. 8.7, p < 0.05). This pilot study supports the general feasibility of HCC detection by FCh PET/CT. However, a broad range of tumor FCh uptake was observed, and lower liver parenchymal uptake of FCh was noted in cirrhotic patients as compared to non-cirrhotic patients. Incorporating tissue profiling into future liver imaging trials of FCh PET may help determine the molecular basis of the observed variations in tumor and hepatic FCh uptake.