Does autoimmune disease impair the survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing liver resection? A multi-institutional observational study

TL;DR

This study found that autoimmune disease does not worsen survival or cancer recurrence in liver cancer patients who undergo surgery.

Contribution

The study is the first multi-institutional analysis showing that autoimmune disease does not negatively impact outcomes in HCC patients after liver resection.

Findings

Autoimmune disease did not reduce overall survival in HCC patients after liver surgery.

Disease recurrence rates were similar between patients with and without autoimmune disease.

Multivariate analysis confirmed no increased risk of mortality or recurrence in autoimmune disease patients.

Abstract

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.

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.

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.

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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