KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the transition and changes in prognosis and background liver disease in non-advanced HCC patients.
- Researchers noticed a notable shift in the characteristics of patients with non-advanced HCC over time.
Antiviral hepatitis and systemic therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) have witnessed remarkable advancements in the recent 10 years. However, the extent to which these advancements have influenced the prognosis and background of liver disease in non-advanced HCC over the past 20 years. decades remains unclear.
Shun Kaneko and his team aimed to elucidate the actual transition and changes in these aspects.
Researchers performed an inclusive analysis, retrospectively recruiting 566 patients diagnosed with non-advanced HCC from February 2002 to February 2022. The prognosis was analyzed by subdividing according to the diagnosis date (period I: February 2002-April 2009 and period II: May 2009-February 2022).
The analysis revealed that patients in period II (n = 351) exhibited significant differences compared to those in period I (n = 215), notably in age, albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) scores, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, and treatment modalities. The etiology ratio of background liver disease shifted, showing a decrease in hepatitis C virus cases from 70.6% to 49.0% and an increase in non-B, non-C cases from 17.7% to 39.9% from periods I to II.
Multivariate analysis identified older age and higher AL BI scores as independent prognostic factors in BCLC 0/A stage, and AFP >20 ng/mL and higher ALBI scores in BCLC B stage. Fine-Gray competing risk model analysis revealed a significant decrease in liver-related deaths in period II compared to period I, particularly evident in BCLC stage 0/A (HR: 0.656; 95%CI: 0.442-0.972, P = 0.036).
The study concluded that the characteristics of patients with non-advanced HCC have evolved over time, with improved liver-related prognoses observed in BCLC 0/A due to appropriate background liver management.
This study was supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38452155/
Kaneko S, Asahina Y, Murakawa M, et al. (2024). “Analysis of prognosis and background liver disease in non-advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in two decades.” PLoS One. 2024 Mar 7;19(3):e0297882. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0297882. PMID: 38452155; PMCID: PMC10919582.
