The pretreatment platelet count is an independent predictor of tumor progression in patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIM

To explore the prognostic value of the pretreatment platelet (PLT) count in patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

MATERIALS & METHODS: We prospectively analyzed 317 hepatitis B virus-related HCC patients undergoing TACE. Time to progression (TTP) was selected to evaluate the clinical significance of PLT level in HCC patients.

RESULTS

PLT was the only parameter showing statistical significance of all the clinical characteristics between two distinct tumor response groups. After ruling out cirrhosis as a potential major confounding factor, the conclusion was further established. Higher pretreatment PLT level, portal vessel invasion and higher stratification of α-fetoprotein level were independently associated with longer TTP. The prognostic score model combining the three risk factors revealed that higher risk scores might mean shorter TTP.

CONCLUSION

The pretreatment PLT level is a potentially useful biomarker to predict the prognostic outcomes in HCC patients undergoing TACE and deserves to be further explored in subsequent works.