AUTHOR=Jia Hang-Dong , Liang Lei , Li Chao , Wu Han , Wang Hong , Liang Ying-Jian , Zhou Ya-Hao , Gu Wei-Min , Fan Xin-Ping , Zhang Wan-Guang , Chen Ting-Hao , Chen Zhi-Yu , Zhong Jian-Hong , Lau Wan Yee , Pawlik Timothy M. , Diao Yong-Kang , Xu Qiu-Ran , Shen Feng , Zhang Cheng-Wu , Huang Dong-Sheng , Yang Tian 

TITLE=Long-Term Surgical Outcomes of Liver Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Patients With HBV and HCV Co-Infection: A Multicenter Observational Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2021.700228

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2021.700228

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most serious consequences of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. This study sought to investigate long-term outcomes after liver resection for HCC among patients with HBV/HCV co-infection (HBV/HCV-HCC) compared with patients with HBV infection (HBV-HCC).</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>Patients who underwent curative-intent liver resection for HCC were identified from a multicenter Chinese database. Using propensity score matching (PSM), patients with HBV/HCV-HCC were matched one-to-one to patients with HBV-HCC. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were compared between the two groups before and after PSM.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Among 2,467 patients identified, 93 (3.8%) and 2,374 (96.2%) patients had HBV/HCV-HCC and HBV-HCC, respectively. Compared with patients with HBV-HCC, patients with HBV/HCV-HCC were older, have poorer liver-related characteristics but better tumor-related characteristics. PSM created 88 pairs of patients with comparable liver- and tumor-related characteristics (all <italic>P</italic> &gt; 0.2). In the PSM cohort, the 3- and 5-year RFS rates in patients with HBV/HCV-HCC were 48.3% and 38.9%, which were significantly poorer than patients with HBV-HCC (61.8% and 49.2%, <italic>P</italic> = 0.037). Meanwhile, the 3- and 5-year OS rates in patients with HBV/HCV-HCC were also poorer than patients with HBV-HCC (65.4% and 51.1% <italic>vs.</italic> 73.7% and 63.0%), with a difference close to be significant between them (<italic>P</italic> = 0.081).</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>Comparing to patients with HBV-HCC, liver resection resulted in relatively poorer long-term surgical outcomes in patients with HBV/HCV-HCC.</p></sec>