Minimally invasive surgery is safe and effective for advanced HCC patients receiving perioperative adjuvant therapy: a real-world retrospective study

Combining surgery and perioperative adjuvant therapy, including tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), anti-PD-1 antibody, and interventional therapy, can prolong the survival of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Adverse reactions to adjuvant therapy, surgical trauma, and surgical complications are challenging for this combined treatment mode. This study aims to explore whether minimally invasive hepatectomy is safe or appropriate in patients with advanced HCC. This retrospective study involved patients with advanced HCC who underwent minimally invasive surgery (MIS group, n = 31) or open surgery (OS group, n = 35) from August 2020 to April 2023 from four medical groups at two medical centers. Operation-related indicators, early postoperative complications, and postoperative drug tolerance were compared between the two groups. Sixty-six patients were enrolled. Between the MIS group and the OS group, there were no significant differences in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) tumor staging (P = 0.44), surgical difficulty (P = 0.29), and R0 resection rate (P = 0.34). Compared with the OS group, the MIS group had less blood loss (101.9 mL vs. 209.0 mL, P = 0.003), shorter average operation time (165.7 min vs. 224.5 min, P = 0.000 4), shorter postoperative fasting time (1.5 d vs. 2.4 d, P = 0.002), shorter postoperative bed time (1.7 d vs. 3.0 d, P < 0.0001) and length of hospital stay (7.1 d vs. 9.4 d, P = 0.001), lower incidence of complication (Clavien-Dindo grade II–III, P = 0.03), better nutritional status, and earlier postoperative adjuvant treatment. Minimally invasive hepatectomy is safe for patients with advanced HCC after conversion therapy and may improve tolerance to combination treatment relative to open surgery.