Background: Early recurrence (ER, recurrence within 2 years) is common in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after ablation and resection. We aimed to compare ER and assess the associated risk factors.
Methods: We collected data from patients underwent resection (1,235) or ablation (517) for early HCC (solitary tumor ≤5 cm). Baseline of patients were matched using propensity score matching.
Results: In the matched cohort of 690 patients, the ablation group had a higher ER rate (37.4% vs. 19.4%; P < .001) than the resection group. Patients with ER had worse overall survival (OS) than those without ER in both the ablation (5-year OS: 60.4% vs. 86.7%) and resection groups (5-year OS: 59.2% vs. 88.1%). Ablation treatment was identified as an independent adverse prognostic factor for ER (hazard ratio: 2.751, P < .001). Resection conferred a significant favorable OS than ablation (2-year: 95.4% vs. 90.9%; 5-years: 83.8% vs. 77.0%).
Conclusions: Resection was superior to ablation in minimizing the risk of ER and offering a better OS for patients with early HCC.
Keywords: Liver cancer; Prognosis; Recurrence; Treatment.
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