Prevalence and clinical significance of regional lymphadenectomy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: A limited amount of literature involves the clinical significance of regional lymphadenectomy during operations on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Our study aims to explore regional lymphadenectomy rate and node-positive rate, as well as their clinicopathological relevance and prognostic values in patients with HCC receiving liver resection (LR) and liver transplantation (LT). Methods: Patients with HCC who received LR or LT and were diagnosed from 2004 to 2013 were retrieved from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. A total of 6367 patients with staging and regional lymphadenectomy information was included. Results: The regional lymphadenectomy rates were 14.3% and 28.6% in patients receiving LR and LT, respectively. Additionally, the rate of LT patients increased from 21.3% to 33.3% in the 2004–2013 time period. In patients with regional lymphadenectomy, node-positive rates were 8.4% and 0.9% in LR and LT patients, respectively. Regional lymphadenectomy was conducted relatively non-specifically in patients receiving LT compared with those receiving LR by analysing its clinicopathological relevance. Furthermore, regional lymphadenectomy did not improve prognosis in the general population or any subgroup. Conclusion: There was a disparity between high regional lymphadenectomy rate and extremely low node-positive rate in patients with HCC receiving LT, which requires further improvement in future clinical practice.