Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2015; 21(1): 246-253
Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.246
Post-hepatectomy survival in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma with portal vein tumor thrombosis
Yusuke Yamamoto, Hisashi Ikoma, Ryo Morimura, Katsutoshi Shoda, Hirotaka Konishi, Yasutoshi Murayama, Shuhei Komatsu, Atsushi Shiozaki, Yoshiaki Kuriu, Takeshi Kubota, Masayoshi Nakanishi, Daisuke Ichikawa, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Kazuma Okamoto, Chouhei Sakakura, Toshiya Ochiai, Eigo Otsuji
Yusuke Yamamoto, Hisashi Ikoma, Ryo Morimura, Katsutoshi Shoda, Hirotaka Konishi, Yasutoshi Murayama, Shuhei Komatsu, Atsushi Shiozaki, Yoshiaki Kuriu, Takeshi Kubota, Masayoshi Nakanishi, Daisuke Ichikawa, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Kazuma Okamoto, Chouhei Sakakura, Eigo Otsuji, Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 6028566, Japan
Toshiya Ochiai, Department of Surgery, North Medical Center Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 6028566, Japan
Author contributions: Yamamoto Y, Ikoma H, Morimura R and Otsuji E designed the research; Yamamoto Y, Ikoma H, Morimura R, Katsutoshi S and Ochiai T performed the research; Yamamoto Y, Konishi H, Murayama Y, Komatsu S, Shiozaki A, Kuriu Y, Kubota T, Nakanishi M, Ichikawa D, Fujiwara H, Okamoto K, Sakakura C and Ochiai T contributed new reagents/analytic tools; Yamamoto Y, Ikoma H, Morimura R and Ochiai T analyzed the data; Yamamoto Y, Ikoma H and Morimura R wrote the paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Hisashi Ikoma, MD, Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto 6028566, Japan. ikoma@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-75-2515527 Fax: +81-75-2515522
Received: March 21, 2014
Peer-review started: March 21, 2014
First decision: May 13, 2014
Revised: June 7, 2014
Accepted: July 11, 2014
Article in press: July 11, 2014
Published online: January 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Hepatectomy for selected patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with portal vein invasion (vp) 3 or vp4 may result in a survival rate that is similar to that for hepatectomy in vp1 or vp2 patients. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) can stratify the stage II-III patients according to prognosis. If serum AFP is elevated in patients with stage II-III HCC, clinical trials involving neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapy should be considered.