Correlationship between serum HBeAg level and tumor recurrence after adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in hepatocellular carcinoma patients

Objective：To investigate the correlation between HBeAg and tumor recurrence after adjuvant transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients after liver resection. Methods：Clinical data of 197 HCC patients with hepatitis B after liver resection from June 2015 to June 2016 in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University were analyzed retrospectively. According to the levels of HBeAg, patients were divided into HBeAg negative group (160 patients) and HBeAg positive group (37 patients). The correlation between HBeAg and tumor recurrence after adjuvant TACE was analyzed. Results：The median recurrence-free survival time (RFS) in the HBeAg positive group was (4.57±0.35) months, and the median RFS in HBeAg negative group was (5.80 ± 0.85) months. The difference in RFS between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0.046). Cox proportional hazard regression analysis showed that microvascular invasion (MVI,P=0.008) and HBeAg level (P=0.009) were the independent risk factors for tumor recurrence after adjuvant TACE in HCC patients after liver resection. Conclusions：HBeAg level might be an independent risk factor for tumor recurrence after adjuvant TACE in HCC patients with hepatitis B after liver resection.