Published online Sep 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i27.8020
Peer-review started: May 16, 2021
First decision: June 15, 2021
Revised: June 28, 2021
Accepted: August 3, 2021
Article in press: August 3, 2021
Published online: September 26, 2021
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and has relatively high recurrence rates. At present, there has not been a unanimous opinion for the treatment of recurrent HCC, and clinical stages of recurrent HCC remain controversial.
This study showed that the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system is applicable to recurrent HCC, and it is essential to formulate the standard of clinical stages for recurrent HCC, which would contribute to the development of more precise and individual treatment plans for recurrent HCC patients.
The aim of this study was to assess the applicability of the BCLC staging for recurrent HCC and the need to establish clinical stage criteria for recurrent HCC.
The clinicopathological data of 81 patients with recurrent HCC were collected. The patients were divided into three groups according to the BCLC staging system as follows: (1) Group A with BCLC stage A, 51 patients; (2) Group B with BCLC stage B, 14 patients; and (3) Group C with BCLC stage C, 16 patients. The median time to tumor recurrence time and the median overall survival were compared.
The median time to tumor recurrence in groups A, B, and C was 16 ± 1.5 mo, 10 ± 2.8 mo, and 6 ± 0.5 mo, respectively, with a statistically significant difference among them; no statistically significant difference was noted between group A and group B, al
There are different prognoses in recurrent HCC patients according to the BCLC. Therefore, BCLC staging is applicable to recurrent HCC and it is essential to formulate clinical stage criteria for recurrent HCC.
Recurrent HCC patients with different clinical stages have different prognoses, and it is essential to formulate more precise clinical stage criteria for recurrent HCC.