Kikuchi Y, et al. – In this work, the researchers performed a comparison of tumor growth activity during treatment associating liver partition and portal vein occlusion for staged hepatectomy (ALPPS) with that in classical 2–stage hepatectomy. they recognized that ALPPS induced a rapid future liver remnant (FLR) volume increase while avoiding remnant tumor progression.

Methods

• Researchers performed comparison of short-term outcomes, serial changes in volume of the future liver remnant (FLR), and tumor growth activity during the treatment period between 12 patients treated with ALPPS and 20 patients treated with 2-stage hepatectomy for colorectal liver metastases.

Results

• At 1 week, greater FLR hypertrophy ratio after the first operation was observed in the ALPPS group (1.43 ± 0.24) than the 2-stage group (1.21 ± 0.28, P = 0.043).
• There appeared no significant differences regarding mean kinetic growth rate (mKGR) of tumors between the ALPPS group (0.548 ± 7.29 mL/day) and the 2-stage group (-3.53 ± 7.02 mL/day) in the first week after the initial procedure (P = 0.210).
• However, significantly greater mKGR was observed between 1 and 3 weeks after the first procedure (1.29 ± 2.34 mL/day) in comparison to that in first week after the procedure in the 2-stage group (P = 0.034).