Adjuvant Therapy With Thalidomide After Curative Resection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

A number of modalities for preventing HCC recurrence after resection have been proposed and analyzed. Both preoperative and adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) were found to be unable to reduce the risk of postoperative recurrence significantly, or confer a survival advantage. Vitamin K (VK) is a fat-soluble vitamin that regulates clotting factor production by acting as a coenzyme for a VK dependent carboxylase that catalyzes carboxylation of glutamic acid residues into gamma-carboxyglutamic acid. The findings in vitro have indicated that VK2 has an antiproliferative effects against hepatoma cell lines, but its efficacy in suppressing HCC recurrence was not confirmed in human studies. Interferon has a variety of biologic properties, including antiviral, immunomodulatory, antiproliferative, antiangiogenic and tumoricidal effects. It is reported that interferon is effective in preventing the development of HCC recurrence after its curative treatment in HCV-related cirrhosis. However, interferon treatment also has side-effects, including flu-like symptoms, fatigue, neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, depression, bone marrow suppression, and unmasking or exacerbation of autoimmune illnesses, which lead either to treatment disruption or dose modification. Polyprenoic acid, an acyclic retinoid, reportedly is effective in prevention of second primary hepatomas, but long-term safety and efficacy data are lacking.

Thalidomide possesses immunomodulatory,anti-inflammatory, and antiangiogenic properties.It has successfully been applied for the treatment of various malignancies including HCC.To investigated whether postoperative adjuvant therapy with Thalidomide could inhibite the recurrence of HCC after radical resection,we planed to conduct this clinical trial.