Hepatic Arterial Infusion Chemotherapy as a Timing Strategy for Conversion Surgery to Treat Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Single-Center Real-World Study

Objective: To evaluate whether surgery-related complications are increased after hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) using oxaliplatin plus fluorouracil/leucovorin for conversion compared with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) resection and the optimal timing of conversion surgery (CS). Background: HAIC has been widely used for advanced HCC, especially initially unresectable HCC, to facilitate conversion to curative-intent resection in approximately 23.8% of cases. However, the optimal timing of surgery to reduce surgical complications must be clarified. Methods: Data from 320 HCC patients, including 107 initially unresectable patients in the HAIC-Surgery group and 213 patients in the Surgery group, were retrospectively collected and analyzed. Survival outcomes and the incidence of surgery-related complications were compared. Results: There was no significant difference in recurrence-free survival (RFS) between the HAIC-Surgery group and the Surgery group (HR: 1.140, 95% CI: 0.8027– 1.618, p =0.444). The HAIC-Surgery group had a higher incidence of surgery-related complications than the Surgery group [biliary leakage (10.3% vs 4.2%, p =0.035), abdominal bleeding (10.3% vs 3.8%, p =0.020), pleural effusion (56.1% vs 23.0%, p < 0.0001) and ascites effusion (17.8% vs 5.2%, p < 0.0001)]. In the HAIC-Surgery group, postoperative liver function decreased and abdominal bleeding increased with more preoperative HAIC cycles (Spearman=0.229, p =0.042, Spearman=0.198, p =0.041, respectively). The pathological complete remission (pCR) rate after 3– 5 HAIC cycles was significantly higher than that after 1– 2 cycles (29.4% vs 13.2%, p =0.043). Conclusion: The prognosis of advanced HCC after conversion surgery is comparable to that after direct surgery. Rather than increasing pCR, more HAIC cycles can exacerbate liver dysfunction and surgery-related complications.