The pretreatment platelet count is an independent predictor of tumor progression in patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIM: To explore the prognostic value of the pretreatment platelet (PLT) count in patients undergoing transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

MATERIALS & METHODS: We prospectively analyzed 317 hepatitis B virus-related HCC patients undergoing TACE. Time to progression (TTP) was selected to evaluate the clinical significance of PLT level in HCC patients.

RESULTS: PLT was the only parameter showing statistical significance of all the clinical characteristics between two distinct tumor response groups. After ruling out cirrhosis as a potential major confounding factor, the conclusion was further established. Higher pretreatment PLT level, portal vessel invasion and higher stratification of α-fetoprotein level were independently associated with longer TTP. The prognostic score model combining the three risk factors revealed that higher risk scores might mean shorter TTP.

CONCLUSION: The pretreatment PLT level is a potentially useful biomarker to predict the prognostic outcomes in HCC patients undergoing TACE and deserves to be further explored in subsequent works.