Predictors of early and late hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence

Table 1 Predictors of early hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after curative treatment

Predictors related to HCC characteristics	Ref.	Predictors related to patient characteristics	Ref.	Predictors related to treatment	Ref.
Size		Liver cirrhosis	[37,41]	RFA (vs LR)	[41,88,89]
> 2.6 cm	[42]
> 3 cm	[36,41]
Multifocality	[41]	Liver insufficiency (CPS, MELD, ALBI)	[37,56-58]	LR:
				Liver resection margins invasion	[44]
				Liver resection margins < 1 cm	[43,86]
				Non-anatomical resection1	[45]
Beyond Milan criteria	[43]	High total bilirubin	[42]	RFA: ablation margins < 1 cm	[91]
Microvascular invasion	[34,36,38,40,44,45]	Male sex	[37]
Lack of capsule integrity	[34,42]	High PLR	[49,59,60]
Poor histological differentiation	[36,43,47]	High NLR	[49,60]
High AFP	[36,41,50]	DAAs therapy
> 10 ng/mL	[48]	Predictor	[62,63]
> 32 ng/mL	[45]	Non-predictor	[64-76]
> 400 ng/mL	[40]	Protective	[77-83]
High PIVKA-II	[41,52,55]	High viral load in HBV infected patients	[109]
> 46.0 mAU/mL	[38]
> 375.5 mAU/mL	[51]

¹Available data are contradictory and not conclusive.

AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; ALBI: Albumin-Bilirubin score; CPS: Child-Pugh score; DAA: Direct antiviral agent; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; LR: Liver resection; MELD: Model for end-stage liver disease; NLR: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; PIVKA-II: Protein induced by vitamin K absence or antagonist II; PLR: Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio; RFA: Radio-frequency ablation.