Hepatocellular carcinoma in Lebanon: Etiology and prognostic factors associated with short-term survival

Table 1 Characteristics of the 92 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma n (%)

Age(yr)	At diagnosis of cirrhosis before development of HCC	56.0 ± 26.3
	At HCC diagnosis	60.5 ± 22.3
Gender	Male	78 (84.8)
Etiology	HBV	62 (67.4)
	HCV	18 (19.6)
	HBV + HCV	77 (83.7)
	Alcohol abuse	22 (23.9)
Liver disease severity at time of diagnosis	Child-Pugh A	32 (34.8)
	Platelet count < 75 000	16 (17.4)
	Bilirubin > 3.2 mg/dL	25 (27.2)
	Albumin < 30 g/L	46 (50)
	Mean MELD score	9.43 ± 7.58
Tumor characteristics	Single nodule	41 (44.6)
	2-3 nodules	19 (20.7)
	Diffuse	33 (35.9)
	Portal vein obstruction1	31 (34.8)
Follow-up and survival	HCC as first presentation of liver disease	53 (57.6)
	Mean F/U prior to HCC in those with known liver disease	40.2 mo
	Mean follow-up after HCC diagnosis	16.4 mo
	Mean survival	14.9 mo

¹Three patients had multiple nodules without details regarding vascular invasion or size of the nodules.

Table 2 Univariate analysis of overall survival in HCC patients

	Criteria	Median survival(mo)	Mean survival(mo)	Log rank P
Age at diagnosis of HCC (yr)	< 55	18	40	0.008
	> 55	8	14
Child-Pugh score	A	25	31.44	0.103
	B	10	18.14
	C	4	24.5
Bilirubin	< 3.2 mg/dL	15	23	0.015
	> 3.2 mg/dL	3	14
HCC diagnosis	Known liver disease	25	33	0.003
	As first manifestation of liver disease	6	12
Eligibility for treatment	No	15	6	0.005
	Yes	27	33
INR	< 2	12	23	0.029
	> 2	2	9
Portal vein thrombosis	Absent	14	23	0.021
	Present	3	12

Table 3 Factors associated with six months survival n (%)

	Survival1
	< 6 mo	> 6 mo	P
Child-Pugh score A	4 (14.3)	14 (35.9)	0.0322
INR < 2	22 (70.9)	43 (93.5)	0.0122
Bilirubin < 3.2 mg/dL	17 (58.6)	35 (83.3)	0.0332
MELD score < 16	37 (90.2)	18 (62.1)	0.0062
Portal vein thrombosis	17 (54.8)	13 (30.9)	0.0352
Tumor < 5 cm or 3 nodules < 3 cm without portal vein thrombosis	3 (10.3)	11 (31.4)	0.0422
Mean creatinine (mg/dL)	1.57 ± 0.89	1.19 ± 0.49	0.0213
Mean INR	1.68 ± 0.47	1.47 ± 0.42	0.0413
Mean MELD score	13.26 ± 8.12	8.12 ± 6.54	0.0053

¹Patients treated curatively by OLT or surgical resection were excluded from this analysis.

²Fischer exact test.

³Mean comparisons by independent sample t-test.