• Tomoko Saito, Tetsuhiro Chiba, Eiichiro Suzuki, Masami Shinozaki, Nobuaki Goto, Naoya Kanogawa, Tenyu Motoyama, Sadahisa Ogasawara, Yoshihiko Ooka, Akinobu Tawada, Tatsuo Kanda, Masaru Miyazaki, and Osamu Yokosuka.
• 1. Department of Gastroenterology and Nephrology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan;
• Int J Med Sci. 2014 Jan 1; 11 (7): 707-12.

AbstractPrevious reports have shown that interferon (IFN)-based therapy decreases the risk of development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. However, it remains to be fully elucidated whether elimination of HCV by IFN-based therapy inhibits HCC recurrence after curative treatment, such as surgical resection and local ablation therapies. In this study, we aimed to clarify the influence of a sustained virological response (SVR) after IFN-based therapy on recurrence and survival after curative treatment of HCC. Fifty-one patients who underwent curative treatment of HCV-related HCC after receiving IFN-based therapy were analyzed retrospectively. They were classified into SVR (N = 14) and non-SVR groups (N = 37). In the SVR group, serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, the indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min, and the percentages of patients with liver cirrhosis and HCV serotype 1 were significantly lower, whereas serum albumin level and platelet count were significantly higher upon HCC occurrence. Recurrence-free survival (RFS) for the first recurrence was significantly higher in the SVR group (P < 0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that SVR at initial HCC treatment (P < 0.01) and multiple tumors (P < 0.01) are prognostic factors for RFS. Moreover, RFS for the second recurrence showed a similar trend to that for the first recurrence. In conclusion, patients who underwent IFN-based therapy before initial curative treatment of HCC had a favorable clinical outcome compared with non-SVR patients.

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