Clinicopathological characteristics and surgical outcomes of sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 3 Univariable and multivariable analyses of overall survival of the studied patients

Variables	HR (95%CI)	P value	HR (95%CI)	P value
Age, ≥ 55 yr vs < 55 yr	0.687 (0.477-0.991)	0.044	0.977 (0.654-1.460)	0.910
Sex, male vs female	0.972 (0.579-1.630)	0.913
Hepatitis virus infection, yes vs no	1.140 (0.718-1.811)	0.579
Alcoholism, yes vs no	1.101 (0.723-1.677)	0.653
Liver cirrhosis, yes vs no	1.027 (0.620-1.703)	0.917
Child-Pugh, B vs A	2.287 (1.281-4.083)	0.005	Excluded1	Excluded
AFP, > 20 ng/mL vs ≤ 20 ng/mL	0.560 (0.386-0.813)	0.002	0.555 (0.377-0.817)	0.003
Tumor size, > 5 cm vs ≤ 5 cm	2.718 (1.806-4.089)	< 0.001	1.871 (1.146-3.054)	0.012
Tumor number, multiple vs single	1.647 (1.129-2.402)	0.010	Excluded	Excluded
Tumor encapsulation, yes vs no	0.443 (0.302-0.651)	< 0.001	Excluded	Excluded
Tumor necrosis, yes vs no	2.237 (1.548-3.233)	< 0.001	0.973 (0.622-1.523)	0.904
Macrovascular invasion, yes vs no	3.403 (2.256-5.133)	< 0.001	2.308 (1.438-3.702)	0.001
Microvascular invasion, yes vs no	1.615 (1.115-2.338)	0.011	Excluded	Excluded
Adjacent organ invasion, yes vs no	2.329 (1.407-3.857)	0.001	Excluded	Excluded
Lymph node metastasis, yes vs no	2.413 (1.371-4.249)	0.002	Excluded	Excluded
AJCC stage, III + IV vs I + II	3.221 (2.200-4.715)	< 0.001	1.763 (1.085-2.864)	0.022
Histological subtype, sHCC vs hgHCC	3.460 (2.283-5.243)	< 0.001	3.140 (2.032-4.851)	< 0.001
Differentiation grade of carcinomatous component		Ptrend < 0.001		Ptrend = 0.421
NA2	1 (reference)		1 (reference)
II	0.383 (0.083-1.758)	0.217	0.297 (0.062-1.422)	0.129
III	0.226 (0.115-0.444)	< 0.001	0.644 (0.281-1.475)	0.298
IV	0.327 (0.159-0.670)	0.002	0.739 (0.311-1.755)	0.494

¹Because of changing the matched hazard ratio of histological subtype less than 5%.

²The tumor consists purely of sarcomatous components. AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; AJCC: American Joint Committee on Cancer; CI: Confidence interval; hgHCC: High-grade hepatocellular carcinoma; HR: Hazard ratio; NA: Not available; sHCC: Sarcomatoid hepatocellular carcinoma.