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To clarify clinicopathologic differences between patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and identify potential factors influencing survival after hepatectomy for ICC. Comparison of clinicopathologic data was made between patients who underwent hepatectomy for ICC ( n = 272) and HCC ( n = 5,829) during the same period. Twenty-five clinicopathologic variables were selected for univariate and multivariate analyses to evaluate their influence on prognosis of ICC. Compared with patients with HCC, ICC patients were more common in females and more elderly, had a lower proportion of asymptomatic tumors, lower serum alpha-fetoprotein, higher serum carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen 19–9 and alkaline phosphatase levels; lower incidence of hepatitis history, associated cirrhosis and serum hepatitis B surface antigen; lower proportion of small tumors, well-encapsulated tumors and tumor emboli in the portal vein; higher proportion of single tumor, perihila lymph node involvement and poor differentiation; and less frequency of limited resection (all, P < 0.0001). Distant metastasis was less frequent in patients with ICC ( P = 0.027). A total of 5-years overall and disease-free survival (in brackets) after resection was 26.4% (13.1%) and 44.5% (33.1%) ( P < 0.0001, P < 0.0001) for patients with ICC and HCC, respectively. Factors influencing survival after resection of ICC can be divided mainly into two categories: early detection of asymptomatic ICC ( P < 0.0001) and curative resection ( P = 0.002). ICC Patients have distinct clinicopathologic features as compared with HCC patients. Surgery remains the only effective treatment for ICC. Early detection of asymptomatic ICC and curative resection were the key to achieve optimal survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study regarding the clinical features and independent survival predictors in patients having bone metastases from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The study administered to 205 patients aims to determine these factors to those who receive external beam radiotherapy (ERT). The result shows that survival outcomes, clinical features and prognostic factors can help these patients in determining proper use of dose and fraction.

Background. Osteopontin (OPN) plays important roles in tumor progression and metastasis through binding to CD44 and integrin. The goal of this study was to elucidate the prognostic significance of OPN and CD44 in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. Methods. Tumor tissue microarray was used to detect the expression levels of OPN and CD44 in 302 hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing curative resection between 1997 and 2000 at our institute. Clinicopathologic data for these patients were investigated. The prognostic effects of OPN and CD44 were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. The Spearman rank test and Fisher's exact test were applied to demonstrate correlations. Results. Both OPN and CD44 were independent predictors for overall survival and disease-free survival. When OPN and CD44 were taken into consideration together, the predictive range was extended and the sensitivity was improved, especially for those patients with normal serum α-fetoprotein levels. The 8-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates in OPN+ and/or CD44+ patients were 28.2% and 25.6%, respectively, which were significantly lower than those of OPN-CD44- patients (52.1% and 51.6%, respectively). Conclusions. OPN combined with CD44 is a promising independent predictor of tumor recurrence and survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative plasma osteopontin (OPN) levels in 101 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent liver resection. Plasma OPN levels were detected by ELISA. The association of plasma OPN levels of patients with clinicopathological characteristics, tumor recurrence, and survival was analyzed. The median plasma OPN level of patients was 176.90 ng/ml (range 13.73–780.00 ng/ml), which was significantly higher than that of 24 healthy volunteers (63.74 ng/ml, range 12.20–122.32 ng/ml). Plasma OPN levels were significantly different in patients with different numbers of tumor nodules (168.18 and 217.11 ng/ml for single and multiple nodules, respectively; P = 0.002), different Edmondson’s grades (201.24, 168.36, and 503.58 ng/ml for grades I, II, and III/IV, respectively; P = 0.015), and different TNM stages (168.16, 167.54, and 216.18 ng/ml for stages I, II, and III/IV, respectively; P = 0.016). Significantly higher plasma OPN levels were found in patients with a recurrence of HCC after resection, compared with those without recurrence (213.55 versus 153.70 ng/ml; P = 0.0013). A higher plasma OPN level was a leading independent prognostic factor for both overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in univariate and multivariate Cox models. This suggests that the preoperative plasma OPN level can be used as a predictive marker for HCC recurrence and may be helpful to assess the prognosis of patients with HCC after surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]