Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 14, 2015; 21(42): 12197-12210
Published online Nov 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i42.12197
Hepatocellular carcinoma in the elderly: Meta-analysis and systematic literature review
Annie K Hung, Jennifer Guy
Annie K Hung, Department of Internal Medicine, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94115, United States
Jennifer Guy, Department of Transplantation, Division of Hepatology, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA 94115, United States
Author contributions: Hung AK designed study, analyzed data, and wrote manuscript; Guy J designed study and edited manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have not received any financial support for this article and have no conflicts-of-interest to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Annie K Hung, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, California Pacific Medical Center, 2333 Buchanan Street, San Francisco, CA 94118, United States. hungah@sutterhealth.org
Telephone: +1- 415-6006000
Received: April 27, 2015
Peer-review started: April 29, 2015
First decision: June 2, 2015
Revised: July 3, 2015
Accepted: September 15, 2015
Article in press: September 15, 2015
Published online: November 14, 2015
Processing time: 198 Days and 1.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The optimal management strategy for elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is dependent on patient and tumor characteristics. This meta-analysis suggests that surgical resection, transarterial chemoembolization, and radiofrequency ablation are safe and effective treatment options for elderly patients with HCC. Overall, elderly patients have similar success with these treatments compared to younger patients and should be considered for all treatments pending their clinical status and cancer burden.