Radiofrequency ablation for HCC patients with multifocal tumours meeting the Milan criteria: A single-centre experience.

BACKGROUND: Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has been recommended as a curative treatment for patients with single early-stage unifocal hepatocellular carcinomas (HCCs) for years; however, the effect of this treatment on multifocal tumours has remained uncertain.

AIMS: We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates of early HCC patients with multiple tumours subjected to different RFA modalities.

METHODS: One hundred fifty-four HCC patients with multifocal tumours who met the Milan criteria and underwent RFA were enrolled in this study. We divided the patients into 3 groups according to the surgical approach utilised (percutaneous, laparoscopic and open RFA; selection was based on the locations of the tumours for whether they were adhered to the subhepatic inferior vena cava or the gastrointestinal tract) and into 2 subgroups according to the tumour numbers and locations.

RESULTS: No deaths occurred in the 30-day post-operation period, and there were no significant differences in the complication, OS or RFS rates between the 3 groups. The 1-, 3- and 5-year OS rates were 88.9%, 75.5% and 50.9% in the subgroup with 2 tumours, respectively, versus 91.3%, 56.3% and 17.5% in the subgroup with 3 tumours, respectively (P=0.001). The corresponding values were 93.2%, 77.4% and 50.8% in the subgroup with tumours in the same segment and 82.4%, 54.8% and 23.0% in the subgroup with tumours in different segments (P=0.001).

CONCLUSION: RFA was proven to be an effective and safe method for the treatment of multifocal HCCs. Among the patients with 2 tumours within the same segment, RFA achieved better long-term outcomes in terms of both overall and recurrence-free survival.