The influence of viral hepatitis status on long-term HCC outcome in patients with non-cirrhotic livers.

AIM: To evaluate the influence of viral hepatitis status on the long-term outcome of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in non-cirrhotic livers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Two hundred and seventy-nine patients diagnosed with HCC underwent liver resection. Histologic examination of the resected liver confirmed the absence of cirrhosis in 145 patients. Clinical characteristics and surgical outcome were compared between patients with HCC derived from non-cirrhotic liver with (n=111) and without (n=34) viral hepatitis. RESULTS: One-, three- and five-year disease-specific survival rates in patients without viral markers (97.0%, 93.9% and 88.1%, respectively) were significantly higher than in patients with positive viral markers (97.2%, 81.0% and 62.3%, respectively) (p=0.0151). The five-year remnant liver recurrence-free survival rate in patients with negative viral markers (64.1%) was significantly higher than in patients with viral markers (44.9%) (p=0.0412). CONCLUSION: Hepatic resection is beneficial for HCC in non-cirrhotic livers patients without viral hepatitis.