Chemosensitivity in primary liver cancers: Evaluation of the correlation between chemosensitivity and clinicopathological factors

Background/Aims: The aim of this study is to investigate the correlation of the chemosensitivity of primary liver cancers and the clinicopathological factors. Materials and Methods: The correlation of the chemosensitivity was investigated along with the associated clinicopathological factors, using 229 cases with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and 8 with cholangiocellular carcinoma (CCC), who all underwent hepatic resection. Chemosensitivity was determined by a succinate dehydrogenase inhibition assay. Results: The overall rate of chemosensitivity among the HCCs was as follows: 34.8% to adriamycin, 40.5% to mitomycin C, 38.2% to cisplatin, respectively, while the resistant rate to all drugs tested was 50.9%. The chemoresistant rate of the HCCs with hepatitis C tended to be higher (62%) than, that of the HCCs with hepatitis B (50%). In the HCCs, there was no definite correlation between the chemosensitivity to each drug and the histological findings, while there seemed to be a positive correlation between the chemoresistant rate and the poor prognostic risk factors, such as vascular invasion and intrahepatic metastasis. In CCCs, the chemoresistant rate to all drugs tested was 77.7%, moreover, both the age and the CA 19-9 level in the chemosensitive group were significantly higher than those in the chemoresistant group. Conclusion: HCC with hepatitis C, as well as the higher degree of malignant potentials such as vascular invasion, intrahepatic metastasis and poor differentiation tended to be resistant to all 3 drugs tested. CCC was also highly resistant to all 3 drugs tested. For such resistant tumors, the drug-resistant mechanism urgently needs to be identified as soon as possible.