Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 26, 2021; 9(27): 8020-8026
Published online Sep 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i27.8020
Clinical stages of recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma: A retrospective cohort study
Si-Yang Yao, Bin Liang, Yuan-Yuan Chen, Yun-Tian Tang, Xiao-Feng Dong, Tian-Qi Liu
Si-Yang Yao, Bin Liang, Yuan-Yuan Chen, Yun-Tian Tang, Xiao-Feng Dong, Tian-Qi Liu, Department of Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic-Splenic Surgery, The People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China
Author contributions: Liu TQ proposed the study; Yao SY and Liang B performed the research and wrote the first draft; Chen YY, Tang YT, and Dong XF collected and analyzed the data; all authors contributed to the design and interpretation of the study; and Liu TQ is the guarantor.
Supported by Self-financed Research Program of Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, No. Z20180722.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by The People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Institutional Review Board (Approval No. KY-LW-2019-4).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tian-Qi Liu, PhD, Chief Doctor, Department of Hepatobiliary- Pancreatic-Splenic Surgery, The People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, No. 6 Taoyuan Road, Nanning 530021, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. gxljrqt@163.com
Received: May 16, 2021
Peer-review started: May 16, 2021
First decision: June 15, 2021
Revised: June 28, 2021
Accepted: August 3, 2021
Article in press: August 3, 2021
Published online: September 26, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, and has relatively high recurrence rates. Few studies have been published on the clinical stages of recurrent HCC.

AIM

To assess the applicability of the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging for recurrent HCC and the need to establish clinical stage criteria for recurrent HCC.

METHODS

The clinicopathological data of 81 patients with recurrent HCC who were admitted to the Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from January 2013 to December 2017 were collected. The patients were divided into three groups according to the BCLC staging system as follows: (1) Group A with BCLC stage A, 51 patients; (2) Group B with BCLC stage B, 14 patients; and (3) Group C with BCLC stage C, 16 patients. The median time to tumor recurrence and the median overall survival were compared.

RESULTS

The median time to tumor recurrence in groups A, B, and C was 16 ± 1.5 mo, 10 ± 2.8 mo, and 6 ± 0.5 mo, respectively, with a statistically significant difference among them (χ2 = 70.144, P < 0.05); no statistically significant difference was noted between group A and group B (χ2 = 2.659, P > 0.05), although there were statistically significant differences between group A and group C and between group B and group C (χ2 = 62.110, and 19.972, P < 0.05). The median overall survival in groups A, B, and C were 42 ± 5.1 mo, 22 ± 3.1 mo, and 13 ± 1.8 mo, respectively, with a statistically significant difference among them (χ2 = 38.949, P < 0.05); there were statistically significant differences between group A and group B, group A and group C, and group B and group C (χ2 = 9.577, 37.172, and 7.183, respectively; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

There are different prognoses in recurrent HCC patients according to the BCLC staging. Therefore, BCLC staging is applicable to recurrent HCC and it is essential to formulate clinical stage criteria for recurrent HCC.

Keywords: Clinical stages, Recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging system

Core Tip: We analyzed the clinical and pathological data of 81 patients who developed recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with an aim to evaluate the applicability of the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system for recurrent HCC. Our results indicate that BCLC staging is applicable to recurrent HCC and it is essential to formulate clinical stage criteria for recurrent HCC.