Early and Late Recurrence of Hepatitis B Virus-Associated Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Abstract

Liver resection is the main curative treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but postoperative survival remains poor because of high recurrence rates. This study investigated the risk factors and patterns of early and late recurrence and found that a high preoperative hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA load was an independent hepatitis-related risk factor for both. Early recurrence was also independently associated with worse postrecurrence survival. These data may provide insights into different biological origin and behavior of early versus late recurrence after resection for HBV-associated HCC, which could be helpful to make individualized treatment decision for recurrent HCC, as well as strategies for surveillance recurrence after resection.