Long-term outcomes of hepatectomy vs percutaneous ablation for treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma ≤ 4 cm

Table 1 Clinicopathologic characteristics of 149 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma according to treatment modality

Variable	Hepatectomy	Percutaneous ablation
Age (yr)
≤ 65	56	33
> 65	29	31
Gender
Male	61	43
Female	24	21
HBsAg
Negative	61	54
Positive	24	10
HCVAb
Negative	38	11
Positive	47	53b
Cirrhosis
Absent	38	13
Present	47	51b
Child-Pugh classification
A	74	30
B plus C	11	34b
ICG R15 (%)
≤ 10	52	10
> 10	33	54b
AST(IU/L)
≤ 50	48	17
> 50	37	47b
ALT(IU/L)
≤ 50	50	23
> 50	35	41b
AFP (ng/mL)
≤ 20	39	27
> 20	46	37
No. of hepatic tumors
Solitary	67	41
Multiple	18	23
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 2	23	43
> 2	62	21b

ICG R15: indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min.

^bP < 0.01 between groups.

Table 2 Independent risk factors for local recurrence

Variable	Relative risk	95% CI	P value
Treatment modality Hepatectomy	1.000		0.001
Percutaneous ablation	13.442	3.102-58.254
AFP (ng/mL)			0.014
≤ 20	1.000
> 20	4.711	1.370-16.195

Table 3 Independent factors influencing long-term survival

Variable	Relative risk	95% CI	P value
Treatment modality Hepatectomy	1.000		0.006
Percutaneous ablation	2.398	1.278-4.499
Tumor size (cm)			0.017
≤ 2	1.000
> 2	2.159	1.148-4.060
Child-Pugh classification			0.050
A	1.000
B + C	1.773	1.000-3.142
AFP (ng/mL)			0.072
≤ 20	1.000
> 20	1.713	0.952-3.084

Table 4 Incidence of vascular invasion according to tumor size

Tumor size (cm)	Vascular invasion		P value
	(-)	(+)
≤ 2	22	11	0.033
> 2	46	162

¹Portal venous invasion was noted.

²Portal venous invasion in 10 patients, hepatic venous invasion in 3, and both portal and hepatic venous invasion in 3.