Adjuvant chemotherapy with epirubicin and carmofur after radical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma: a prospective randomized study.

TL;DRAbstract

The intrahepatic recurrence rate is extremely high, even after radical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). One report showed intra-arterial administration of epirubicin to be effective in the treatment of nonresectable HCC. We evaluated the effect of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy including this drug. Fifty-seven patients who had undergone radical resection of HCC were entered in this study. Using the sealed-envelope method, 27 patients were assigned to a group undergoing resection only and 29 patients to a group also receiving adjuvant chemotherapy after resection. The protocol of the chemotherapy was intra-arterial administration of epirubicin (40 mg/m2) at 1 month after resection followed by intravenous administration of epirubicin (40 mg/m2) every 3 months for 2 years. In addition, 1-hexylcarbamoyl-5-fluorouracil (HCFU; carmofur), 300 mg/d, was administered orally every day, beginning from 1 month after the resection and continuing (in principle) for 24 months. The cl

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