Risk factors of recurrence and poor survival in curatively resected hepatocellular carcinoma with microvascular...

Microvascular invasion (MVI) is a significant sign of the invasive property and a strong predictor of poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a life-threatening malignancy. However, recurrence-associated and post-surgical long-term prognosis-associated factors in HCC with MVI remain unknown.

To address the abovementioned issues, based on a Chinese patient cohort with HCC after curative hepatic resection.

The patient cohort consisted of 62 consecutive patients with HCC and MVI who underwent curative hepatic resection. The associations between clinicopathologic variables and recurrence, as well as patient overall/disease-free survival, were uniand multivariately evaluated.

Univariate χ2 test identified hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positivity, high Edmondson-Steiner grade and male gender as risk factors of recurrence, whereas Edmondson-Steiner grade and HBsAg positivity were significant or marginally significant in the multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis. Subsequently, univariate log-rank test showed that Edmondson-Steiner grade, HBsAg positivity and Child-Pugh grade were associated with overall and/or disease-free survival. Among them, the independent prognostic impact of Edmondson-Steiner grade and HBsAg positivity for both overall and disease-free survival were proven in the multivariate Cox regression analysis.

Our data suggested that Edmondson-Steiner grade and HBsAg positivity might serve as useful indicators of recurrence and pessimistic prognosis in HCC with MVI.