Survival outcomes after stereotactic body radiotherapy for 79 Japanese patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (sbrt) is a relatively new treatment for liver tumor. outcomes of sbrt for liver tumors unsuitable for ablation or surgical resection were evaluated. a total of 79 patients treated with sbrt for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) between 2004 and 2012 in six japanese institutions were studied retrospectively. patients treated with sbrt preceded by trans-arterial chemoembolization were eligible. their median age was 73 years,76% were males,and their child-pugh scores were grades a (85%) and b (11%) before sbrt. the median biologically effective dose (α/β = 10 gy) was 96.3 gy. the median follow-up time was 21.0 months for surviving patients. the 2-year overall survival (os),progression-free survival (pfs),and distant metastasis-free survival were 53%,40% and 76%,respectively. sex and serum pivka-ii values were significant predictive factors for os. hypovascular or hypervascular types of hcc,sex and clinical stage were significant predictive factors for pfs. the 2-year pfs was 66% in stage i vs 18% in stages ii-iii. multivariate analysis indicated that clinical stage was the only significant predictive factor for pfs. no grade 3 laboratory toxicities in the acute,sub-acute,and chronic phases were observed. pfs after sbrt for liver tumor was satisfactory,especially for stage i hcc,even though these patients were unsuitable for resection and ablation. sbrt is safe and might be an alternative to resection and ablation. © 2015 the author.