The preferred treatment for small liver cancer is surgical resection

Surgical resection is the first choice for treating small liver cancer in clinical practice, and it is also an important way for patients to achieve long-term survival. According to the results of a follow-up study of 1,068 patients with small liver cancer who underwent surgical resection by the Liver Cancer Research Institute of Fudan University, the 5-year survival rate was 62.7% and the 10-year survival rate was 46.3%.

However, it should be noted that not all patients with small liver cancer can undergo surgical resection. Patients with liver function of Child-Pugh A grade, without severe portal hypertension, and with good liver reserve function are the best candidates for liver resection for small liver cancer; patients with liver function of Child-Pugh B grade can also choose surgical resection, but they need to make adequate preparations before the operation and improve liver function as much as possible to reach Child-Pugh A grade; while small liver cancer with liver function of Child-Pugh C grade is a contraindication for liver resection.

In addition, according to the mechanism that early micrometastases of liver cancer are located in the same liver segment as the main tumor, anatomical liver resection is more reasonable for surgical resection, because anatomical liver resection can theoretically remove the tumor and micrometastases spread in the liver at the same time, thereby reducing postoperative recurrence, and can also reduce the shedding of cancer cells, intrahepatic dissemination and distant metastasis caused by squeezing the tumor during surgery. Compared with anatomical liver resection, although non-anatomical liver resection has no statistically significant short-term efficacy and mortality, its long-term efficacy, long-term survival rate and disease-free survival rate are still inferior to anatomical liver resection.