Preoperative high AFP (more than 250 ng/ml) and high NLR (more than 1.829) were independent risk factors for ER HCC.

Background/Purpose: No effective postoperative adjuvant therapies have been established for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of oral administration of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) on the recurrence-free survival (RFS) after hepatic resection in HCC patients. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, HCC patients undergoing curative resections were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to the BCAA group or surgery-alone group. The BCAA group received BCAA (Livact ®) for up to 4 years. The primary endpoint was RFS. The secondary endpoint was overall survival (OS). Multivariate analysis was performed to detect the clinical characteristics significantly associated with RFS. Results: Between January 2010 and October 2014, 156 patients (75 in BCAA group and 81 in surgery-alone group) were enrolled in the study. Of these, two patients were excluded from the efficacy analysis. Comparison of the survival curves by the log rank test demonstrated no significant difference in the RFS (P = .579) or OS (P = .268) between the BCAA and the control group. Multivariate analysis revealed that the RFS was significantly associated with age and number of tumors. A beneficial effect of BCAA on the RFS was found in patients younger than 72 years old with a HbA1c level of < 6.4%. Conclusions: Oral BCAA supplementation could not reduce the risk of recurrence after hepatic resection in HCC patients; however, the results suggested that BCAA supplementation may be beneficial for selected patients who were younger and had mildly impaired glucose tolerance.

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Background/Aim: Little is known about the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with gemcitabine plus S-1 (GS) for patients with resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (R-PDAC). The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the long-term outcome of patients with R-PDAC undergoing pancreatectomy with and without NAC-GS to clarify the clinical significance of NAC-GS. Patients and Methods: A total of 77 patients with R-PDAC who were scheduled for pancreatectomy between January 2012 and December 2017 were enrolled. Of these patients, 39 received NAC-GS (GS group) and 38 had upfront surgery (UFS group). Results: Among the 77 patients, one patient in each group did not undergo pancreatectomy due to intraoperative non-curative factors. Median tumor size and the number of lymph nodes with metastasis were significantly lower in the GS group than in the UFS group (p=0.002 and p=0.017). However, the 5-year overall survival rate was similar in the two groups (26.1% versus 21.5%, p=0.930). Conclusion: NAC-GS may not be recommended for patients with R-PDAC since it does not seem to offer any survival benefits.

Background The tumor location is the most simple clinical factor and important in liver surgery to make surgical procedure. However, no previous study has investigated the prognostic differences and clinical features of hepatocellular carcinoma showing specific laterality. This study is the first report to focus on the laterality and aimed to lead to more simple and useful predictive factor rather than recent complicated predictive models. Methods Patients who underwent liver resection for the first time for single tumors located within each lobe between 2000 and 2018 were enrolled. We divided them into two groups based on tumor location: a right-sided group and a left-sided group. Univariable and multivariable analyses were performed to assess survival differences in relation to several other factors. Results There were 595 eligible patients; the 5-year survival rates and disease-free survival rates were 49.5% and 19.1% in the left-sided group and 55.6% and 24.5% in the right-sided group, respectively (p = 0.026). Statistical analyses revealed that the following preoperative prognostic factors were independently significant (p < 0.05) in the left-sided group: indocyanine green retention rate at 15 min, alpha fetoprotein, protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonists-II level, and larger tumor size. Conclusion The left-sided group had a poorer prognosis than the right-sided group. A left-sided tumor location is a significant preoperative factor predictive of poor outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.