Post-transplant infection improves outcome of hepatocellular carcinoma patients after orthotopic liver transplantation

Table 1 Comparison of baseline clinicopathological parameters between transplant hepatocellular carcinoma patients with and without post-transplant infection

Clinicopathological parameter	Total (n = 238)	PTI group (n = 53)	Non-PTI group (n = 185)	P-value
Age, median (range), yr	49.5 (43, 55)	49 (43.5, 55.5)	50 (44, 55)	0.962
Sex (male/female)	209/29	44/9	165/20	0.226
Liver cirrhosis (yes/no)	214/24	46/7	168/17	0.392
Pre-operative AFP level (≥ 200 ng/mL/< 200 ng/mL)1	96/137	20/31	76/106	0.744
Child-Pugh Score (A/B/C)	128/84/26	26/18/9	102/66/17	0.272
HBsAg (positive/negative)	214/24	48/5	166/19	0.895
HBeAg (positive/negative)	68/170	15/38	53/132	0.961
Tumor number (single/multiple)	135/103	32/21	103/82	0.613
Tumor size (≤ 5 cm/> 5 cm)	169/69	41/12	128/57	0.248
Histological grade (G1-G2/G3-G4)1	190/30	46/4	144/26	0.186
Vascular invasion (yes/no)1	105/92	26/22	79/70	0.890
Lymph node involvement (yes/no)	10/228	2/51	8/177	1.000
Pathological TNM stage (I-II/III)	197/41	43/10	154/31	0.720

¹The number of cases was less than the total patient number (n = 238) because of missing data. PTI: Post-transplant infection; AFP: Alpha fetoprotein.

Table 2 Univariate analysis of overall and recurrence-free survival of transplant hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Variable	Overall survival		Recurrence-free survival
	χ2	P-value	χ2	P-value
Age (≤ 50 vs > 50)	2.828	0.093	1.682	0.195
Sex (male vs female)	0.011a	0.916	-0.020	0.888
Liver cirrhosis (no vs yes)	8.361	0.004b	5.429	0.020a
Pre-operative AFP level (≥ 200 ng/mL vs < 200 ng/mL)	9.938	0.002b	8.879	0.003b
Child-Pugh score (A/B/C)	1.609	0.447	1.020	0.600
HBsAg (positive vs negative)	0.512	0.474	0.349	0.555
HBeAg (positive vs negative)	0.253	0.615	0.412	0.521
Tumor number (multiple vs single)1	0.800	0.371	2.027	0.155
Tumor size (> 5 cm vs ≤ 5 cm)1	37.554	< 0.001c	45.365	< 0.001c
Histological grade (G3-G4 vs G1-G2)1	12.165	< 0.001c	14.790	< 0.001c
Vascular invasion (yes vs no)1	32.767	< 0.001c	45.440	< 0.001c
Lymphnode involvement (yes vs no)1	12.750	< 0.001c	25.258	< 0.001c
Pathological TNM stage (III vs I/II)1	17.938	< 0.001c	30.984	< 0.001c
PTI (without vs with)	4.554	0.033a	3.463	0.063

¹Data explored by histological examination. AFP: Alpha fetoprotein; PTI: Post-transplant infection.

^aP < 0.05;

^bP < 0.01;

^cP < 0.001.

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of overall and recurrence-free survival of transplant hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Variable	Overall survival			Recurrence-free survival
	P-value	RR	95%CI	P-value	RR	95%CI
Histological grade (G3-G4 vs G1-G2)1	0.029	1.977	1.073-3.642	0.026	1.964	1.083-3.561
Vascular invasion (yes vs no)1	< 0.001	4.237	2.293-7.827	< 0.001	3.702	1.959-6.999
PTI (without vs with)	0.013	2.584	1.226-5.449	0.006	2.683	1.335-5.390

¹Data explored by histological examination. PTI: Post-transplant infection; RR: Relative risk; CI: Confidence interval.