Long-term treatment results of hepatoblastoma at a single institution in Taiwan

From 1990 to 2004, there were 23 consecutive patients with hepatoblastoma treated at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. There were 7 patients of stage I, 3 of stage II, 13 of stage III, and none had stage IV disease. Two siblings had congenital hepatoblastoma and both survived. Two patients were prematurity. Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, isosexual precocity, chronic B hepatitis presented in 1 patient each. In addition to surgery, we used cisplatin 90 mg/m ²/d on day 1 and epirubicin 25 mg/m ²/d for days 1 to 3 as first-line chemotherapy. Each course was repeated every 3 weeks. Epirubicin was chosen because of its lower cardiotoxicity. Carboplatin/etoposide and vincristine/cyclophosphamide/5-fluorouracil were the second-line chemotherapy for considering cumulative toxicity of first-line chemotherapy. If initial total excision was feasible, postoperative chemotherapy of 4 to 6 courses were given. Three patients died of progressive disease, infection, and relapse 1 each. The median duration of follow-up for 20 survived patients was 94 months. The 5-year event-free and overall survival rates were 73.9%±9.2% (SE) and 87%±7.0%, respectively. Tumor recurred in 5 patients. The commonest toxicity was febrile neutropenia. There was no cardiotoxicity event. In conclusion, with sequential combination of surgery and chemotherapy, the treatment results for hepatoblastoma were satisfactory as compared with other groups.