Recurrence Rate and Prognosis of Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma That Developed after Elimination of Hepatitis C Virus RNA by Interferon Therapy

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Abstract
Background: Although hepatocellular carcinoma does develop after sustained response to interferon (IFN) in patients with chronic hepatitis C, details on the clinical prognosis have not been elucidated yet. Patients and Methods: Among 12 patients with liver cancer arising after hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination, 10 patients with potentially curative ablation were prospectively analyzed. Matched control patients were chosen from a patient list of surgical resection on the basis of age, sex, cancer stage, and severity of liver disease. Control patients were recruited with a ratio of 1:4, and all the control patients had positive HCV-RNA. Results: One (10.0%) of 10 patients with virus elimination and 31 (77.5%) of 40 control patients eventually developed cancer recurrence during the same follow-up period. Cancer recurrence rates of the 10 cases and 40 controls were 10.0 and 55.3% at the 3rd year, and 10.0 and 72.2% at the 5th year, respectively. The recurrence rate in the 10 cases of virus elimination was significantly lower than that of control patients (p = 0.012). Conclusion: Although hepatocellular carcinogenesis after elimination of HCV-RNA by IFN treatment did rarely occur, the recurrence rate after radical therapy was significantly lower than that of untreated or non-responsive patients.

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