Clinical

Renal function tied to liver cancer mortality

Last Updated: 2004-04-15 9:54:53 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In patients undergoing percutaneous injection therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), renal problems may indicate a poor prognosis, according to Taiwanese researchers. The injection therapy, however, appears not to affect survival.

As lead investigator Dr. Teh-Ia Huo told Reuters Health, "patients with HCC frequently have co-existing liver cirrhosis, which may predispose to renal dysfunction."

Dr. Huo and colleagues at Taipei Veterans General Hospital conducted a study to determine what influence percutaneous injection therapy might have on HCC patients with renal insufficiency. Their findings are published in the March issue of the European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

The researchers followed 172 HCC patients, 35 of whom had chronic renal insufficiency for a mean of 2 years. There was no significant difference in survival in those with or without chronic renal insufficiency. Twenty percent of patients with renal insufficiency and 28% of patients without insufficiency died.

However, Dr. Huo continued, "we found that patients with moderate renal insufficiency, defined as serum creatinine greater than 2.3 mg/dL, were at an increased risk of mortality compared to those with no or mild renal insufficiency."

"Our findings," he concluded, "are consistent with the new concept that renal function is an important prognostic predictor in cirrhotic patients."

Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2004;16:325-331.