Does Autoimmune Disease Impair the Survival of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Liver Resection? A Multi-institutional Observational Study

Overview

Journal J Cancer Res Clin Oncol

Specialty Oncology

Date 2024 Jul 20

PMID 39031214

Authors

Chao-Wei Lee

Hsing-Yu Chen

Ping-Han Tsai

Wei-Chen Lee

Chih-Chi Wang

Ming-Chin Yu

Chun-Wei Chen

Po-Ting Lin

Bo-Huan Chen

Sheng-Fu Wang

Pei-Mei Chai

Hsin-I Tsai

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Patients with autoimmune diseases (AD) generally carry an increased risk of developing cancer. However, the effect of AD in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients receiving surgical treatment is uncertain. The present study aimed to investigate the potential influence of AD on the survival of HCC patients undergoing hepatectomies.

Methods: Operated HCC patients were identified from the Chang Gung Research Database, and the survival outcomes of HCC patients with or without AD were analyzed ad compared. Cox regression model was performed to identify significant risk factors associated with disease recurrence and mortality.

Results: From 2002 to 2018, a total of 5532 patients underwent hepatectomy for their HCC. Among them, 229 patients were identified to have AD and 5303 were not. After excluding cases who died within 30 days of surgery, the estimated median overall survival (OS) was 43.8 months in the AD (+) group and 47.4 months in the AD (-) group (P = 0.367). The median liver-specific survival and disease-free survival (DFS) were also comparable between the two groups. After Cox regression multivariate analysis, the presence of AD did not lead to a higher risk of all-cause mortality, liver-specific mortality, or disease recurrence.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrated that autoimmune disease does not impair the OS and DFS of HCC patients undergoing liver resections. AD itself is not a risk factor for tumor recurrence after surgery. Patients eligible for liver resections, as a result, should be considered for surgery irrespective of the presence of AD. Further studies are mandatory to validate our findings.

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