Characteristics And Prognosis Of Young Patients With Hepatitis Viral Marker-negative Hepatocellular Carcinoma

ObjectiveThrough statistical analysis of the clinical data to understand the clinical features of both HBsAg-and HCV Ab-negative (HCC-nonBC) young hepatocellular carcinoma patients and related prognostic factors, and to elucidate the clinical characteristics of HCC-nonBC compared with those of hepatitis C and/or B virus-associated HCC (HCC-virus).MethodsWe recruited622patients with HCC, less then51years old,who were diagnosed in2011at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. They were categorized into2groups as follows:i)563were included in the HCC-virus group:positive for HBsAg and/or positive for HCV Ab, and ii)59were included in the HCC-nonBC group: negative for both HBsAg, HBV DNA and HCV Ab.statistically analysion of patients’ age, gender laboratory, image data and other general conditions in two groups.ResultsHCC was detected under surveillance in a significantly smaller percentage of patients with HCC-nonBC group than the HCC-virus group’s (P=0.0089). Besides, tumor metastasis and1-year mortality rate of the HCC-nonBC group was significantly higher than the HCC-virus group (P=0.0082, P<0.001), but the TNM (Ⅰ-Ⅱ)1-year mortality rate is lower than the HCC-virus group (P<0.001). Differences in number of tumor, tumor metastasis between HCC-virus group and HCC-nonBC group were more marked, P=0.0019、P=0.0091.ConclusionsThe poorer prognosis of patients with HCC-nonBC was attributable to its late detection in an advanced condition, owing to the lack of a surveillance system for early detection of HCC. However, among early-stage patients, those with HCC-nonBC showed a significantly better prognosis than those with HCC-virus. To conclude, we suggest that the people without virus infection should be tested using imaging techniques at least every12months, especially for the drinking, smoking, fat ones.