Significant association between serum Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2-binding protein and prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma after surgical treatment.

Serum Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2 binding protein (WFA-M2BP) is a novel marker for evaluating fibrosis and predicting the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the role of WFA-M2BP in the prognosis of HCC patients after curative surgery remains unknown. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic role of serum WFA-M2BP in HCC patients after curative resection and liver transplantation. We enrolled 460 HCC patients (357 resection and 103 transplantation) to analyze the risk factors for HCC recurrence and patient's survival. We employed time-to-event models using univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses and calculated the hazard ratios (HRs) and adjusted HRs with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The levels of WFA-M2BP were 0.19-14.51 COI (median 1.08) in patients of hepatectomy and 0.47-19.90 COI (median 6.0) in transplant patients. The levels of WFA-M2BP in liver transplant patients is much higher than that of hepatectomy patients. Overall, liver fibrotic stage was positively correlated to WFA-M2BP levels (P<0.0001). This study demonstrated that elevated WFA-M2BP level (COI ≥0.75) was associated with a higher HCC recurrence rate in the resection group (P<0.001). Survival analysis showed that an elevated WFA-M2BP level (COI ≥1.43) is associated with a higher mortality risk after surgical resection (P=0.0088) in the univariate analysis only. In liver transplant patients, WFA-M2BP level (COI ≥3.81) did not predict HCC recurrence at all, but was associated poor survival after transplantation, with a borderline significance (P=0.0943). Serum WFA-M2BP is a reliable marker for liver fibrosis in the present study. It is also reliable marker to predict prognosis of HCC after surgical resection. However, the prognostic role of WFA-M2BP in HCC related transplants is equivocal, which is different from that of surgical resection.