Early extrahepatic recurrence as a pivotal factor for survival after hepatocellular carcinoma resection: A 15-year observational study

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the enrolled patients

	Patients without early EHR (n = 705)	Patients with early EHR (n = 74)	P value
Age (yr)	59.49 ± 10.08	56.51 ± 10.37	0.020
Male sex (n, %)	603 (85.5)	64 (86.5)	0.824
BMI (kg/m2)	23.89 ± 3.03	24.10 ± 2.98	0.790
Etiology of hepatitis, n (%)			0.569
HBV/HCV	425 (63.2)/55 (8.2)	53 (73.6)/8 (11.1)
Alcohol/combined	40 (10.4)/49 (7.0)	5 (6.9)/2 (2.8)
NASH/unknown	1 (0.1)/73 (10.8)	0/4 (5.6)
ALP (U/L)	89.25 ± 44.04	113.23 ± 106.76	0.059
Albumin (mg/dL)	4.36 ± 0.45	4.19 ± 0.48	0.002
ALBI grade ≥ 2, n (%)	97 (13.8)	16 (21.9)	0.063
ICG R15	12.02 ± 7.29	12.58 ± 7.62	0.566
Preoperative serum AFP > 400 (IU/mL)	127 (18.6)	24 (32.9)	0.004
Sum of tumor size	4.17 ± 2.44	6.06 ± 3.38	< 0.001
Tumor numbers	1.19 ± 0.54	1.32 ± 0.82	0.176
BCLC stage, n (%)			< 0.001
0/A/≥ B	89 (12.7)/491 (69.9)/122 (17.4)	3 (4.1)/44 (59.5)/27 (36.5)
Pathological mUICC stage, n (%)			< 0.001
I/II/≥ III	111 (15.8)/431 (61.4)/160 (22.8)	2 (2.7)/32 (43.2)/40 (54.1)
Radiological mUICC stage, n (%)			< 0.001
I/II/≥ III	112 (15.9%)/463 (66.0%)/127 (18.1%)	4 (5.4)/43 (58.1)/27 (36.5)
Beyond Milan criteria, n (%)	179 (25.4)	40 (54.1)	< 0.001
Macrovascular invasion, n (%)	32 (4.6)	11 (14.9)	< 0.001
Hospital stay, days (median, range)	13.3 ± 7.1	15.6 ± 75.6	0.049
Follow-up duration, years (median, range)	4.8 (0.23-15.36)	1.8 (0.31-1.43)	< 0.001

Values are presented as mean ± SD. SD: Standard deviation; EHR: Extrahepatic recurrence; BMI: Body mass index; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; AST: Aspartate transaminase; ALT: Alanine transaminase; ALP: Alkaline phosphatase; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; BCLC: Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; mUICC: Modified Union for International Cancer Control.