Objective: To evaluate the therapeutic effects of 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3-DCRT) for small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCCs) and to analyze the prognostic factors.
Methods: Forty-two HCCs patients were treated with 3-DCRT and acute effects and survival rates were observed. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis, and Cox proportional hazard model adopted in multi-factor analysis.
Results: No evidence of local failure was found in 83.3% of the patients at 3 months after the radiotherapy. The overall 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates were 100.00%, 90.48%, 78.57% respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that the gender, number of tumors, and tumor size were the independent and statistically significant factors affecting the patients' survival (P<0.05).
Conclusions: 3-DCRT is effective and feasible for treating non-operable HCCs, and the gender, number of tumors, and tumor size are the major factors affecting the survival of HCCs patients.