Impact of time to surgery in the outcome of patients with liver resection for BCLC 0-A stage hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) guidelines recommend resection for very early and early single hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. It is not known whether a delay in resection from the time of diagnosis (the time to surgery [TTS], i.e. the elapsed time from diagnosis to surgery) affects outcomes. We aim to evaluate the impact of TTS on recurrence and survival outcomes in patients with HCC.

METHODS: All patients resected for BCLC stage 0-A single HCC from 2006 to 2016 were studied to evaluate the impact of TTS on recurrence rate, recurrence-free survival (RFS), transplantability following recurrence, and intention-to-treat overall survival (ITT-OS). Propensity score matching (PSM) was further performed to ensure comparability.

RESULTS: The study population included 100 patients. Surgery was performed between 0.6 and 77 months after diagnosis (median TTS: three months; interquartile range: 1.8-4.6 months). There was no post-operative mortality. Compared to those with TTS <3 months, patients with TTS ≥3 months (70% of these patients had TTS 3-6 months) had a higher post-operative morbidity (36% vs. 16%, p = 0.02), a similar tumor recurrence rate (32% vs. 32%, p = 1.00), RFS (37% vs. 48%, p = 0.42), transplantability following tumor recurrence (63% vs. 50%, p = 0.48), and five-year ITT-OS (82% vs. 80%, p = 0.20). Similar results were observed after PSM.

CONCLUSION: Patients with BCLC stage 0-A single HCC can undergo surgery with TTS ≥3 months without impaired oncologic outcomes. An increase in the TTS within a safe range could allow time for proper evaluation before surgery, and ethical testing of new neoadjuvant treatments, aiming to reduce the high rate of tumor recurrence despite curative resection.

LAY SUMMARY: A delay of ≥3 months in time to resection after diagnosis in HCC patients meeting the European Association for the Study of Liver Disease/American Association for the Study of Liver Disease criteria for resection does not affect oncological and long-term outcomes compared to those with a delay to surgery of <3 months.