The influence of preoperative neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio on recurrence of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma patients after liver transplantation

Objective To investigate the significance of peripheral blood neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in predicting adverse prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after liver transplantation.

Methods The laboratory examination data and clinical data of HCC patients who underwent liver transplantation for the first time in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University from January 2017 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. With 1.97 as the cut-off value of NLR, patients were divided into the 2 groups. Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to the recurrence rate between the 2 groups.The univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to analyze the influence factors of HCC recurrence in patients after liver transplantation.

Results A total of 149 patients met the inclusion criteria, including 125 males and 24 females. Kaplan-Meier survival curve showed that the postoperative recurrence rate in the NLR≥1.97 group (n=111) was significantly higher than that in the NLR < 1.97 group (n=38, P=0.002). Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that NLR was associated with recurrence of HCC patients after liver transplantation (P=0.004). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that NLR was an independent risk factor for the recurrence of HCC patients after liver transplantation.

Conclusion The recurrence rate of HCC patients with higher NLR (≥1.97) after liver transplantation may be higher, and NLR could be used to evaluate the prognosis of these patients.