The clinical significance of lymph node metastases in patients undergoing surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma

The frequency of lymph node (LN) metastasis in patients undergoing surgery for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has rarely been studied. We evaluated the clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes of six patients with nodal metastases from HCC among a total of 504 patients who underwent hepatic resection for HCC in our department over a 16-year period. The nodal metastases were diagnosed preoperatively in two patients. The average diameter of the resected tumors was 7.8 cm and all were confirmed as poorly differentiated HCC. All of the six patients had intrahepatic metastatic nodules and five also had portal vein invasion. One patient underwent limited resection, and the other five underwent bisegmentectomy. All of the regional LNs were removed in one patient, while only enlarged LNs were removed in the other five. One patient died of postoperative liver failure and the others all died later of intrahepatic or nodal recurrence. Our findings suggest that the prognosis of patients with nodal metastasis from HCC is generally poor, even if hepatic resection with regional LN dissection is performed.