The prognostic value of postoperative circulating cell-free DNA in operable hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Background

Tumor biomarkers are eagerly needed in monitoring the recurrence of operable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a promising noninvasive molecular biomarker for HCC. The current study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of the postoperative cfDNA in operable HCC.

Methods

This study enrolled 82 HCC patients from January 2018 to June 2019. All patients underwent liver surgery and were pathologically diagnosed with HCC. Postoperative blood samples were collected from each patient. A fluorometric dsDNA assay was used to measure the concentration of cfDNA. We explore the correlation between cfDNA and recurrence. Kaplan–Meier’s curves were used to evaluate the recurrence-free survival (RFS). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used for assessing the relative clinical variables in predicting recurrence.

Results

Of the 82 HCC patients, 72 (87%) patients are male and the average age was 52.7 ± 12.8 years. The cfDNA-low and cfDNA-high groups had median recurrence times of 19.5 months and 14.0 months, respectively (p = .023). Multivariate analysis showed that postoperative cfDNA, tumour number and microvascular invasion (p < .050) were independent risk factors for recurrence in operable HCC.

Conclusions

Postoperative cfDNA is still a promising marker to predict prognosis in postoperative HCC patients although prospective and large multicenter clinical study is needed to further validate the relationship between cfDNA and HCC recurrence.

Keywords:

• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• circulating cell-free DNA
• hepatectomy
• recurrence

Ethical statement

The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. The design of this study was approved by the Xiangya Hospital Central South University ethics committee. All clinical data involved in this study were obtained with patient consent.

Disclosure statement

The author reports no conflicts of interest in this work.

Data availability statement

Research data are not shared.

Author contributions

LeDu Zhou designed the work and wrote the manuscript. Guo Long and Tongdi Fang collected the HCC patients clinical data and completed follow up of the HCC patients after surgery. Wenxin Su and Xingyu Mi analyzed the data. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 81771932).