Different Risk Factors for Early and Late Recurrence After Curative Resection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Abstract

Factors of early and late recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may be different. The aim of this study was to identify clinical factors, including liver stiffness measurement (LSM), which are associated with HCC recurrence after curative resection. Patients who underwent preoperative LSM and primary curative resection for HCC between October 2015 and May 2018 were retrospectively reviewed, with 1year as the cut-off between early and late recurrence. Recurrence was observed in 42/149 (28.2%) patients over a median follow-up of 38.3months (early recurrence: 10 [6.7%] patients; late recurrence: 32 [21.5%] patients). Multivariate analysis identified LSM (P = 0.026) and tumor size (P = 0.010) as the only factors that were significantly associated with recurrence-free survival. Compared with patients without recurrence, those with early recurrence had larger tumor size (P = 0.035) and those with late recurrence had higher LSM (P = 0.024). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis indicated that the optimal LSM cut-off value for predicting HCC recurrence was 7.4kPa. Tumor size was associated with early HCC recurrence after curative resection and LSM was associated with late recurrence. LSM cut-off of 7.4kPa is recommended in predicting recurrence.