Hepatic Resection for Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 7226 Patients.

OBJECTIVE

To systematically review and compare the overall (OS) and disease-free (DFS) survival after hepatic resections for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) versus other risk factors.

BACKGROUND

Different clinical and tumor characteristics are associated with HCC in the setting of NAFLD in comparison to other risk factors. It is still unclear whether these differences impact patient survival after radical hepatectomies.

METHODS

Randomized controlled trials and observational studies published in the English literature between July 1980 and June 2020 were searched using multiple databases. Patients' baseline characteristics and the hazard ratios (HRs) of the OS and DFS were extracted and meta-analyses were performed.

RESULTS

Fifteen retrospective cohort studies with a total of 7226 patients were included. Among them, 1412 patients (19.5%) had NAFLD and 5814 (80.4%) had other risk factors (eg, viral hepatitis B or C, alcoholic cirrhosis, or cryptogenic cirrhosis). Summary statistics showed that patients with NAFLD had better DFS (HR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.70-0.94; = 0.006) and OS (HR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.67-0.90; = 0.001) than the control group. Subgroups analyses also indicated that the OS favored NAFLD patients versus patients with viral hepatitis B or C (HR = 0.80; 95% CI: 0.67-0.96; = 0.017) or alcoholic and cryptogenic cirrhosis (HR = 0.68; 95% CI: 0.47-1.0; = 0.05).

CONCLUSION

After hepatic resections for HCC, NAFLD patients have better DFS and OS than patients with other risk factors. Subgroup analysis and meta-regression suggested that the survival advantage of NAFLD patients was more pronounced in studies published after 2015 and from Asian centers.