Glasgow Prognostic Score as a useful prognostic factor after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma

Several previous studies have revealed that the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) is a clinically useful scoring system to predict the prognosis of patients with various kinds of advanced cancers. However, there have been few reports on the relationship between the GPS and prognosis after hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Therefore, we performed an analysis of the relationship between the GPS and prognosis after hepatectomy for HCC.

Between January 2005 and December 2009, 352 HCC patients underwent hepatectomy at Kumamoto University Hospital. Nineteen clinicopathologic factors were analyzed, using univariate and multivariate analyses.

Univariate analysis showed that significant risk factors for poor survival included serum albumin level (<3.5 g/dL), tumor size (>35 mm), presence of ascites, portal vein invasion, operation time (>400 min), blood loss (>360 mL), requirement for blood transfusion, and GPS. Multivariate analysis revealed that tumor size [hazard ratio (HR) 3.355; p = 0.003], operation time (HR 2.634; p = 0.006), portal vein invasion (HR 2.419; p = 0.009), and GPS (HR 3.796; p < 0.001) were independent factors for poor prognosis.

The GPS was demonstrated to be a statistically significant prognostic factor after hepatectomy for HCC.