Factors predictive for long-term survival of male patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after curative resection.

Background And Objectives: Curative hepatic resection (CHR) was a modality that provides possibility of long-term survival for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). So far, prognostic factors of male patients with HCC after CHR remain unclear. Purposes of the present study were to identify these factors and to compare them with those for females.

Methods: Consecutive 151 male and 23 female patients with HCC undergoing CHR were enrolled in this retrospective study. Their prognostic factors were identified by uni- and multi-variate statistical analysis.

Results: One-, three- and five-year overall and disease-free survival of male patients were 82.4, 51.5, and 43.6%, and 65.8, 33.7, and 21.7%, respectively, with no significant differences compared to females. Univariate analysis showed that tumor size, TNM staging, Edmondson-Steiner grade, serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) level, presence of portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT) and satellite nodule were significant for males with HCC, but only Edmondson-Steiner grade, presence of PVTT and satellite nodule were independent. For females, Edmondson-Steiner grade was the single potential indicator for survival.

Conclusions: Malignant degree and invasive phenotypes were main factors that independently influenced survival of male patients with HCC after CHR. Among them, histological grade, which was also potentially significant for females, was the most powerful survival predictor.