The 1-, 3- and 5-year cumulative survival rates were 89.1%, 68.7% and 68.7%, respectively, in the HR group, and 59.2%, 40.9% and 32.7%, respectively, in the RF group. The 1-, 3- and 5-year recurrence-free survival rates were 85.1%, 64.8% and

48.6%, respectively, in the HR group, and 29.0%, 7.2% and 7.2%, respectively, in the RF group. There was a significant difference between these groups (P < 0.05). As hepatic resection has greater efficacy than RFA in the treatment of poorly differentiated HCC, even in cases with a small tumor size, we recommend its use for this malignancy. HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA (HCC) is a common malignancy in Japan, for which hepatic resection is the most effective treatment in patients with good hepatic functional reserve. However, most patients experience recurrence after hepatic resection due to infection with a hepatitis virus. Since the 1990s, FDA approved Drug Library the use of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) has become more common for the treatment of small HCC tumors, particularly because it can be performed repeatedly. Several this website studies

have evaluated the effectiveness and safety of RFA,[1-4] and one study has reported that it is particularly effective in cases of recurrent HCC after hepatic resection.[5] The Japanese guidelines for HCC treatment state that RFA should be used in cases where the maximum tumor diameter is 3 cm and there are three or less tumors in total.[6, 7] However, the guidelines do not address tumor differentiation. Some previous studies have shown that RFA, which is used to treat poorly differentiated HCC, is associated with a risk of tumor seeding and diffuse intrahepatic

recurrence.[8-10] Despite this, it remains unclear as to whether or not tumor differentiation is actually associated with prognosis. In the present study, we aimed to compare the efficacy of hepatic resection and RFA for the treatment of poorly differentiated, small HCC tumors that are histologically diagnosed as being malignant. BETWEEN APRIL 2004 and May 2011, we enrolled patients who had undergone hepatic resection (HR group; n = 15) or percutaneous RFA (RF group; n = 33) as a first-line treatment for newly developed HCC. No cases of recurrent HCC that had undergone treatment Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) at the time of study initiation were included in this study. Additional inclusion criteria were that the maximum tumor diameter was 3 cm, that there were no more than three HCC tumors in total and that the pathological diagnosis after the procedure was poorly differentiated HCC. Contrast computed tomography (CT) was used to confirm that tumors had been completely resected (HR group) or ablated (RF group). The decision on whether to treat using hepatic resection or RFA was based on the location of the tumor. Hepatic resection was used primarily if the tumor was adjacent to major vessels or located on the surface of the liver. It was also selected if there were major vessels between the puncture lines of the RFA needle.