Rethinking the Barcelona clinic liver cancer guidelines: Intermediate stage and Child-Pugh B patients are suitable for surgery?

Abstract

According to Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer recommendations, intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinomas (stage B) are excluded from liver resection and are referred to palliative treatment. Moreover, Child-Pugh B patients are not usually candidates for liver resection. However, many hepatobiliary centers in the world manage patients with intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma or Child-Pugh B cirrhosis with liver resection, maintaining that hepatic resection is not contraindicated in selected patients with non–early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma and without normal liver function. Several studies demonstrate that resection provides the best survival benefit for selected patients in very early/early and even in intermediate stages of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer classification, and this treatment gives good results in the setting of multinodular, large tumors in patients with portal hypertension and/or Child-Pugh B cirrhosis. In this review we explore this controversial topic, and we show through the literature analysis how liver resection may improve the short- and long-term survival rate of carefully selected Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer B and Child-Pugh B hepatocellular carcinoma patients. However, other large clinical studies are needed to clarify which patients with intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma are most likely to benefit from liver resection.

Keywords: Liver surgery; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Barcelona liver clinic cancer; Child B; Intermediate stage

Core Tip: According to Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer recommendations, intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinomas are excluded from surgery. Also, Child-Pugh B patients with hepatocellular carcinoma are not usually candidates for liver resection. Nevertheless, several recent studies demonstrated that surgical resection can provide good survival benefit for patients with large and multinodular (diameter > 5 cm, number > 3) hepatocellular carcinoma or Child-Pugh B cirrhosis. In this review we discuss that liver resection may improve the short- and long-term survival of selected patients who have a stage B hepatocellular carcinoma or underlying Child-Pugh B cirrhosis.