Increased Survival Benefit of Adjuvant Intra-arterial Infusion Chemotherapy in HCC Patients with Portal Vein Infiltration after Hepatectomy

Background The role of adjuvant hepatic intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAI) is considered to be a promising option. Methods We examined treatment effects of adjuvant HAI using cisplatin in 37 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein infiltration (PVI) who underwent hepatectomy in comparison with those in 85 patients who did not. Results PVI in 89 patients. Increased levels of aspartate transaminase, tumor markers, size and microvessel tumor infiltration (MVI) or cirrhosis, poorly differentiation, non-adjuvant HAI was associated with lower overall survival (p = 0.09). Poor differentiation, MVI and HAI were independently risk factors associated with tumor-free and overall survivals by the multivariate analysis (p < 0.05). Adjuvant HAI tended to show longer survivals in comparison with no-HAI (p = 0.08) and the multivariate analysis revealed significant efficacy of HAI for better prognosis. Conclusion Adjuvant HAI showed effectiveness on prolonging tumor-free and patient survival in HCC with PVI and is a promising option in the daily clinical practice.