Resection of hepatic hilar liver cancer

From January 1970 to January 1987, hepatic hilar liver cancer (or central type of hepatic cancer) resection was done in 51 cases. The resection was often extremely difficult, and sometimes complete occlusion of the hepatic blood supply was needed when the tumor lied close to, or already invaded the great blood vessels. The 1-, 3-, and 5- year postoperative survival rates were 65.7%, 45.3%, and 38.8%, respectively, in contrast to 93.8%, 86.1%, and 80.1% (P less than 0.001) obtained in 51 cases of peripheral type liver cancer of similar tumor size during the same period. It is considered that the difficulty involved in the resection of such a cancer, the limited extent of resection, and the easy entrance of tumor cells into the blood stream may explain the poor prognosis.