OBJECTIVES: Early detection of primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) patients with cirrhosis is critical to enhance PHC patients’ survival rates because cirrhosis is a major risk factor to develop PHC and limiting factor to select treatment approaches. The study aimed to support the importance to detect PHC with cirrhosis early through determining current survival rates in PHC patients with cirrhosis according to their characteristics.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on 68,328 PHC patients with cirrhosis in the national cancer registry from 2005 to 2015 linked to the Korea national health insurance claims database. The survival rates and median survival durations of the patients were analyzed regarding their sex, age, surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) stage and type of PHC at diagnosis.

RESULTS: There were differences of survival rates depending on their characteristics including SEER stage. The 5-year survival rates of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients aged 20-49 years were 54% (95% CI, 53-56%) for localized stage, 19% (95% CI, 18-20%) for regional stage and 4% (95% CI, 3-5%) for distant stage. If LCC patients aged over 75 years were for localized stage, their 5-year survival rate was 25% (95% CI, 23-27%) but they were for distant stage, their 5-year survival rate was 2% (95% CI, 1-3%). The overall median survival duration of HCC was 4.66 years (95% CI, 4.56-4.77) for localized stage but it was 0.33 years (95% CI, 0.32-0.35) for distant stage. This trend was observed consistently in other PHC groups regardless of sex or types of PHC at diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS: Early detection of PHC would improve the survival rate of adults with cirrhosis irrespectively of their sex, age and type of PHC at diagnosis. The future studies would need to impact of the national liver cancer surveillance program on the survival rates of PHC patients with cirrhosis.