Background: The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the prognostic value of the pretreatment platelet (PLT) count in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related intermediate-advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) complicated with cirrhosis undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).
Research design and methods: We assessed 362 patients with HBV-related intermediate-advanced HCC complicated with cirrhosis undergoing TACE. Patients were divided into low (≤96 × 10^{9}/L) and high (>96 × 10^{9}/L) PLT groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to eliminate the imbalance in potential confounding factors. The endpoint was time to progression (TTP).
Results: After PSM, the high and low PLT groups had 97 patients each. The TTP was significantly longer in the low PLT group than in the high PLT group (log-rank test, p < 0.001). A high pretreatment PLT count was an independent predictor of poor tumor response (OR 4.724; 95% CI 1.889-11.815; P = 0.001) and short TTP (HR = 3.598; 95% CI: 2.570-5.036; P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that a high PLT count increased the risk of progression across almost all subgroups.
Conclusions: The pretreatment PLT count has potential value in predicting the prognosis of patients with intermediate-advanced HCC undergoing TACE.
【저자키워드】 cirrhosis, Platelet, Propensity score, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Chemoembolization,