Postoperative early intrahepatic recurrence and the prognosis in patients of hepatocellular carcinoma

Objective To investigate the predictive factors and prognosis of early intrahepatic recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods Clinicopathological dats of 184 HCC patients with intrahepatic recurrence after curative resection were collected.Thirteen clinicopathological factors and prognosis after recurrence were retrospectively analyzed. Results Univariate analysis showed that preoperative scrota alpha-fetoprotein(AFP)>100 ng/ml,tumour size>5 cm,venous invasion and intra-operative blood transfusion were predictive factors of early intrahepatic recurrence,and selum albumin 100 ng/ml,tumour size>5 cm and venous invasion were independent predictive factots of early intrahepatic recurrence.The survival of patients suffering from early recurrence was significantly shorter than those with late recurrence.with median survival period of 12 mos vs 18 mos(P=0.012).Conclusion Serum AFP,tumour size and venous invasion were independent predictive factors of early intrahepatic recurrence in HCC patients after radical resection of the primary tumor.Early intrahepatic recurrence implies poor prognosis. Key words: Carcinoma,hepatocellular; Hepatectomy;  Neoplasm recurrence,local; Forecasting factors