Surgical Radicalism in the Complex Treatment of Hepatoblastoma

Overview

Background.
Evaluation of treatment results in children with hepatoblastoma – a retrospective study of clinical andpathological data of surgically treated children.Methods and Results. At the clinic of authors, 28 children were operated for hepatoblastoma during 1991 to 2002.Average age of patients was 2.2 years. When tumors were classified according to PRETEX system, 3 children werein the stadium I, 12 children in stadium II, 12 children in stadium III, and one child in the stadiumIV. At the diagnosis,lung metastases were found in 3 children. Till 1996 the treatment was initiated by a primary operation, since 1996by a preoperative chemotherapy. Chemotherapywas administered according to the SIOP protocols. Primary operationwas done in 13 children, 15 children were operated after the pre-operation chemotherapy. Liver resection includedright-sided lobectomy in 7 cases, extended right-sided lobectomy in 4 cases, left-sided lobectomy in 8 cases,right-sided trisegmentectomy in 5 cases, left-sided trisegmentectomy in 3 cases. In our studied group the three yearsof event free survival was achieved in 75%, overall survival in 86%. Four children died, two of them because of theprogression of the disease, two for the complication during the therapy.Conclusions. Combination of the radical surgical resection with preoperative and postoperative chemotherapyenables successful treatment of the childhood hepatoblastoma.

Key words:
hepatoblastoma, liver resection in children, pre-operation chemotherapy, lung metastases, CUSA.