Prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and hypersplenism after surgery: a single-center experience from the People's Republic of China

Cong Li, Hong Zhao, Jianjun Zhao, Zhiyu Li, Zhen Huang, Yefan Zhang, Xinyu Bi, Jianqiang Cai

Department of Abdominal Surgery, Cancer Institute and Hospital, Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China

Purpose: As prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and hypersplenism is rarely reported, this study examined prognostic factors for patients who underwent surgery for this condition.
Patients and methods: This study retrospectively analyzed prognostic factors in 181 consecutive HCC patients using univariate and multivariate analyses, as well as subgroup analyses for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of two groups: one group who received splenectomies (Sp) and one group who did not (non-Sp).
Results: 1, 3, and 5 year OS rates were 88.4%, 67.1%, and 52.8%, respectively; corresponding DFS rates were 67.0%, 43.8%, and 31.6%, respectively. Age ≥55 years old, cigarette smoking, tumor size ≥5 cm, microvascular invasion, and Child-Pugh grade B (versus A) correlated significantly with OS (P<0.05). Interestingly, in patients with tumor lymph node metastasis (TNM) stage I disease, DFS of the Sp-group (median DFS, 24.1 months; n=34) was significantly lower than that of the non-Sp group (median DFS, 62.1 months; n=74), P=0.034; whereas at TNM stage II, OS of the Sp-group (median OS, 79.1 months; n=21) was significantly better than that of the non-Sp group (median OS, 23.3 months; n=30), P=0.018.
Conclusion: Hepatectomy without concomitant splenectomy can contribute to improved DFS of TNM stage I HCC patients with hypersplenism, whereas simultaneous hepatectomy and splenectomy can prolong OS for patients at TNM stage II.

Keywords: hepatectomy, splenectomy, overall survival, disease-free survival