Positive HBcAb is associated with higher risk of early recurrence and poorer survival after curative resection of HBV-related HCC.

Abstract

Previous studies predicted the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mainly based on tumour-related factors, whereas the impacts of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related factors are usually ignored. The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate the prognostic role of hepatitis B core antibody (HBcAb) on post-operative survival and recurrence of HCC. A retrospective analysis of 3388 HBsAg positive (HBV-related) HCC patients treated by curative resection was performed. Multivariate analysis of independent prognostic factors was performed by Cox proportional hazards regression model. HBcAb positivity was an independent prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival (RFS) of HBV-related patients (P < 0.001, HR: 1.723, 95% CI: 1.278-2.324), and the 1-, 3-, 5-year RFS rates for HBcAb-negative patients were significantly better than those of HBcAb-positive patients (92.5%, 72.1% and 65.9% vs 77.9%, 58.6% and 46.9%, P < 0.001). HBcAb-positive HCC was much bigger (P = 0.006), more often involved with vascular invasion (P = 0.001), elevated AFP (P = 0.001) and ALT (P = 0.046) levels, but less often involved with capsule formation (P = 0.034). Besides vascular invasion, tumour size, interferon-α treatment, AFP and GGT level, HBcAb positivity was an independent prognostic factor for early intrahepatic recurrence of HBV-related patients (P = 0.025, HR: 1.766, 95% CI: 1.073-2.907) and the majority of HBcAb-positive recurrence were early recurrence while most of HBcAb-negative recurrence were late recurrence (P = 0.004). Positive HBcAb may represent a more invasive phenotype of HBV-related HCC, and is associated with a higher risk of early intrahepatic recurrence and poorer RFS of HBV-related patients after curative resection.