Predictive model for microvascular invasion of hepatocellular carcinoma among candidates for either hepatectomy or liver transplantation.

Abstract

4079 Background: Microvascular invasion (MVI) is the strongest prognostic factor following surgery of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, it is usually not available on the preoperative setting. A predictive model of MVI in patients scheduled for hepatic resection (HR) or liver transplantation (LT) would thus help guiding treatment strategy. The aim of this study was to develop a predictive model for MVI of HCC before either HR or LT. Methods: HCC patients who consecutively performed HR or LT from January 1994 to June 2016 at a single institution were subdivided into a training and validation cohort. Risk factors for MVI in the training cohort were used to develop a predictive model for MVI, to be validated in the validation cohort. The outcomes of the HR and LT patients with high or low MVI probability based on the model, were compared using propensity score matching (PSM). Cut-off values for continuous factors were determined based on ROC curve analysis. Results: A total of 910 patients (425 HR, 485 LT) were included in the training (n = 637) and validation (n = 273) cohorts. In the training cohort, multivariate analysis demonstrated that alpha-fetoprotein ≥100ng/ml ( p < 0.0001), largest tumor size ≥40mm ( p = 0.0002), non-boundary HCC type on contrast-enhanced CT ( p = 0.001), neutrophils-to-lymphocytes ratio ≥3.2 ( p = 0.002), aspartate aminotransferase ≥62U/l ( p = 0.02) were independently associated with MVI. Combinations of these 5 factors varied the MVI probability from 15.5% to 91.1%. This predictive model achieved a good c-index of 0.76 in the validation cohort. In PSM (109 HR, 109 LT), there was no difference in survival between HR and LT patients among the high MVI probability (≥50%) patients, (5y-OS; 46.3% vs 42.2%, p = 0.77, 5y-RFS; 54.0% vs 28.8%, p = 0.21). Among the low probability ( < 50%), survival was significantly decreased following HR compared with LT (5y-OS; 54.1% vs 78.8%, p = 0.007, 5y-RFS; 17.3% vs 86.1%, p< 0.0001). Conclusions: This model developed from preoperative data allows reliable prediction of MVI, and may thus help with preoperative decisions about the suitability of HR or LT in patients with HCC.