Clinicopathological characteristics and surgical outcomes of sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 4 Univariable and multivariable analyses of recurrence-free survival of the studied patients

Variables	HR (95% CI)	P value	HR (95% CI)	P value
Age, ≥ 55 yr vs < 55 yr	0.743 (0.533-1.035)	0.079	0.857 (0.605-1.214)	0.386
Sex, male vs female	0.771 (0.493-1.206)	0.254
Hepatitis virus infection, yes vs no	1.369 (0.879-2.133)	0.165
Alcoholism, yes vs no	0.940 (0.634-1.394)	0.759
Liver cirrhosis, yes vs no	1.283 (0.790-2.084)	0.314
Child-Pugh, B vs A	1.699 (0.938-3.078)	0.081	Excluded1	Excluded
AFP, > 20 ng/mL vs ≤ 20 ng/mL	0.710 (0.501-1.006)	0.054	0.680 (0.469-0.986)	0.042
Tumor size, > 5 cm vs ≤ 5 cm	2.398 (1.685-3.413)	< 0.001	1.680 (0.469-0.986)	0.015
Tumor number, multiple vs single	2.058 (1.460-2.902)	< 0.001	1.210 (0.824-1.777)	0.331
Tumor encapsulation, yes vs no	0.561 (0.400-0.786)	0.001	Excluded	Excluded
Tumor necrosis, yes vs no	1.726 (1.239-2.404)	0.001	Excluded	Excluded
Macrovascular invasion, yes vs no	2.922 (1.961-4.354)	< 0.001	Excluded	Excluded
Microvascular invasion, yes vs no	1.646 (1.178-2.300)	0.003	Excluded	Excluded
Adjacent organ invasion, yes vs no	2.329 (1.445-3.753)	0.001	Excluded	Excluded
Lymph node metastasis, yes vs no	2.327 (1.356-3.992)	0.002	Excluded	Excluded
AJCC stage, III + IV vs I + II	3.416 (2.420-4.821)	< 0.001	2.752 (1.879-4.032)	< 0.001
Histological subtype, sHCC vs hgHCC	2.842 (1.913-4.222)	< 0.001	2.355 (1.564-3.546)	< 0.001
Differentiation grade of carcinomatous component		Ptrend = 0.036		Ptrend = 0.194
NA2	1 (reference)		1 (reference)
II	1.001 (0.264-3.790)	0.999	0.650 (0.162-2.603)	0.543
III	0.445 (0.215-0.922)	0.029	1.605 (0.672-3.832)	0.287
IV	0.642 (0.298-1.380)	0.256	2.025 (0.822-4.988)	0.125

¹Because of changing the matched hazard ratio of histological subtype less than 5%.

²The tumor consists purely of sarcomatous components. AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; AJCC: American Joint Committee on Cancer; CI: Confidence interval; hgHCC: High-grade hepatocellular carcinoma; HR: hazard ratio; NA: Not available; sHCC: Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma.