Hepatitis C virus genotype affects survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: There is currently no evidence that hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype affects survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to investigate whether the HCV genotype affected the survival rate of patients with HCV-related HCC.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study using the data of patients with HCV-related HCC evaluated at two centers in Korea between January 2005 and December 2016. Propensity score matching between genotype 2 patients and non-genotype 2 patients was performed to reduce bias.

Results: A total of 180 patients were enrolled. Of these, 86, 78, and 16 had genotype 1, genotype 2, and genotype 3 HCV-related HCC, respectively. The median age was 66.0 years, and the median overall survival was 28.6 months. In the entire cohort, patients with genotype 2 had a longer median overall survival (31.7 months) than patients with genotype 1 (28.7 months; P = 0.004) or genotype 3 (15.0 months; P = 0.003). In the propensity score-matched cohort, genotype 2 patients also showed a better survival rate than non-genotype 2 patients (P = 0.007). Genotype 2 patients also had a longer median decompensation-free survival than non-genotype 2 patients (P = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in recurrence-free survival between genotype 2 and non-genotype 2 patients who underwent curative treatment (P = 0.077). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, non-genotype 2 (hazard ratio, 2.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.29-3.71) remained an independent risk factor for death.

Conclusion: Among patients with HCV-related HCC, those with genotype 2 have better survival.