Authors:	Müller, Lukas Hahn, Felix Mähringer-Kunz, Aline Stoehr, Fabian Gairing, Simon Johannes Foerster, Friedrich Weinmann, Arndt Galle, Peter R. Mittler, Jens Pinto dos Santos, Daniel Pitton, Michael Bernhard Düber, Christoph Fehrenbach, Uli Auer, Timo Alexander Gebauer, Bernhard Kloeckner, Roman
Title:	Prevalence and clinical significance of clinically evident portal hypertension in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing transarterial chemoembolization
Online publication date:	1-Dec-2022
Year of first publication:	2022
Language:	english
Abstract:	Background Clinically evident portal hypertension (CEPH) was previously identified as a prognostic factor for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, little is known about the prognostic influence of CEPH on the long-term outcome of patients with HCC undergoing transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), particularly in Western populations. Objectives This study investigated the prevalence and prognostic influence of CEPH in a Western population of patients with HCC undergoing TACE. Methods This retrospective study included 349 treatment-naïve patients that received initial TACE treatment at our tertiary care center between January 2010 and November 2020. CEPH was defined as a combination of ascites, esophageal/gastric varices, splenomegaly and a low platelet count. We assessed the influence of CEPH and its defining factors on median overall survival (OS) in HCC patients. We compared the effects of CEPH to those of well-known prognostic factors. Results Of the 349 patients included, 304 (87.1%) patients had liver cirrhosis. CEPH was present in 241 (69.1%) patients. The median OS times were 10.6 months for patients with CEPH and 17.1 months for patients without CEPH (log rank p = 0.036). Median OS without a present surrogate was 17.1 months, while patients with one respectively more than two present CEPH surrogates had a median OS of 10.8 and 9.4 months (log rank p = 0.053). In multivariate analysis, CEPH was no significant risk factor for OS (p = 0.190). Of the CEPH-defining factors, only ascites reached significance in a univariate analysis. Conclusion CEPH was present in more than two thirds of the patients with HCC undergoing TACE in our cohort of Western patients. Patients with CEPH had a significantly impaired survival in univariate analysis. However, no significance was reached in multivariate analysis. Thus, when TACE treatment is deemed oncologically reasonable, patients should not be excluded from TACE treatment due to the presence of surrogates of portal hypertension alone.
DDC:	610 Medizin 610 Medical sciences
Institution:	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department:	FB 04 Medizin
Place:	Mainz
ROR:	https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI:	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8452
Version:	Published version
Publication type:	Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License:	CC BY-NC-ND
Information on rights of use:	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Journal:	United european gastroenterology journal 10 1
Pages or article number:	41 53
Publisher:	Wiley
Publisher place:	Hoboken, NJ
Issue date:	2022
ISSN:	2050-6414
Publisher DOI:	10.1002/ueg2.12188
Appears in collections:	JGU-Publikationen