Background: Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) therapy is now widely used for small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC). However, only limited information is available regarding local tumor recurrence after PEI treatment.
Methods: We investigated the relationship of pretreatment clinicopathologic variables (tumor size, tumor cell differentiation and tumor staining) to local recurrence in 170 PEI-treated HCC nodules (measuring 5-39 mm in greatest dimension) in 84 patients.
Results: Local recurrence was observed in 17 of 170 PEI-treated nodules. Among these, 13 local recurrences were observed as the first event of progression after PEI. Local recurrence rates at 1, 2, and 4 years were 6.6%, 14.2%, and 14.2%, respectively, and all recurrences were observed within 2 years after PEI. Of the 3 variables investigated, large tumor size (31 mm or larger in greatest dimension) was significantly associated with a higher local recurrence rate.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that tumor size influences the local efficacy of PEI for small HCC. Therefore, we recommend that a reasonable indication for PEI therapy is HCC lesions measuring less than 30 mm in greatest dimension.