Abstract

Preoperative hepatitis C virus (HCV) viral load is known to predict long-term outcomes after hepatectomy for HCV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study sought to examine the hypothesis that postoperative and preoperative HCV viral-load have similar prognostic implications, as well as determine a target viral-load that will improve long-term postoperative outcomes.One hundred and eighty-one patients who underwent curative hepatectomy for HCV-related HCC were divided into five groups according to time-weighted average viral load. The cumulative-recurrence curves of the five groups were compared to identify prognostic trends. The optimal cut-off viral load value related to recurrence was also investigated.The five cumulative-recurrence curves were separated into two clusters according to viral load. Patients with a negative viral load had comparable recurrence curves to patients with the lowest viral-load (P?=?0.907); both of these patient groups had more favorable outcomes than patients with a viral load categorized in the other groups (all P? or =4.0 log10? IU/mL) was a strong prognostic indicator of recurrence in multivariate analysis (HR 3.09; 95%CI 1.96-5.04; P?

View details for DOI 10.1002/jso.25015

View details for Web of Science ID 000434145500012

View details for PubMedID 29473962