Abstract
Purpose: Minimally invasive hepatectomy (MIH) has been increasingly applied for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the effectiveness of MIH has yet to be well established. Patients and Methods: This retrospective cohort study included patients aged 20 years and older, newly receiving MIH for HCC with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) classification stage 0, A or B from 2010 to 2019. Two 1:1 propensity score-matched cohorts of those receiving open hepatectomy (OH) and those receiving radiofrequency ablation (RFA) were selected as comparison groups. As a control analysis, we compared patients receiving OH with those receiving RFA under the hypothesis that the OH group had better survival outcomes than the RFA group. Results: We included a total of 555 matched patients receiving MIH or OH, and 382 matched patients receiving MIH or RFA. Compared to the OH group, MIH group was associated with better overall survival (OS) (Hazard ratios (HR): 0.62; 95% CI: 0.43-0.88) and similar PFS (HR: 0.92; 0.74-1.16). Compared to the RFA group, we found the MIH group was associated with better OS (0.46; 0.32-0.67) and better PFS (0.48; 0.38-0.61). We found consistent results from a series of subgroup analyses (eg, age groups, BCLC stages and hospital levels) and sensitivity analyses (eg, study period restricted to the most recent 5 years (2015-2019)). The control analysis (OH group vs RFA group) confirmed the robustness of main analyses. Conclusion: Our study suggested that MIH had better survival outcomes for patients with early or resectable intermediate-stage HCC, compared to RFA or OH.