Hemorrhage of brain metastasis is a poor prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Yan Lin,Xin-Bin Pan,Yan-Ming Jiang,Shi-Ting Huang

doi:10.18632/oncotarget.21449

Abstract

It is unclear whether hemorrhage of brain metastasis is a poor prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare overall survival between hemorrhage and no-hemorrhage groups of hepatocellular carcinoma patients with brain metastasis. Hepatocellular carcinoma patients with brain metastasis treated between June 2000 and June 2016 at the Cancer Hospital of Guangxi Medical University were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical characteristics and overall survival were compared between patients with (n = 11) and without (n = 25) hemorrhage of brain metastasis. Univariate and multivariate survival analyses showed hemorrhage to be a poor prognostic factor (hazard ratio = 5.812, 95% confidence interval: 1.399-24.142, p = 0.015). Patients with hemorrhage had a shorter median survival than those without hemorrhage (4 weeks vs 8 weeks, p = 0.001). These results suggest hemorrhage of brain metastasis is a poor prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Highlights

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most commonly occurring cancers in Southeast Asia [1]
The variables correlated with median survival after diagnosis of brain metastasis (BrM) were recursive partitioning analysis (RPA), HCC treatment modality, hemorrhage, and BrM treatment modality (Table 2)
We found that hemorrhage of BrM was a poor prognostic factor affecting median survival

Summary

Introduction

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most commonly occurring cancers in Southeast Asia [1]. Because the prognosis of HCC patients with BrM is extremely poor [3, 5,6,7, 10], prognostic factors and treatment modalities are not well defined. BrM from HCC is fast growing, highly vascularized, and commonly associated with hemorrhage [11], though several studies suggest hemorrhage is not a prognostic factor in HCC and does not affect survival duration [5, 6, 10, 12]. Han et al [7] reported that hemorrhage of BrM was associated with poor overall survival in HCC

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Conclusion