Exploring the clinical value of preoperative serum gamma-glutamyl transferase levels in the management of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma receiving postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization

Abstract

Background Preoperative serum gamma-glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) levels is significantly related to the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), but its clinical value in the management of postoperative adjuvant transarterial chemoembolization (PA-TACE) has rarely been explored. This study aimed to investigate whether γ-GT levels could be taken as a biomarker to guide the management of PA-TACE in resectable HCC. Methods HCC patients receiving radical resection were identified through the primary liver cancer big data (PLCBD) from December 2012 to December 2015. Prognostic factors of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were identified by univariate and multivariate cox analyses, and subgroup analysis was conducted between PA-TACE group and non-TACE stratified by γ-GT levels before and after 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM). Results γ-GT level was found to be an independent risk factor of OS and DFS in 1847 HCC patients receiving radical resection (both P\u2009< 0.05), and patients with elevated γ-GT(>\u200954.0\u2009U/L) have a shortened median OS and DFS, compared with those with normal γ-GT (both P\u2009<\u20090.001). In the subgroup of patients with normal γ-GT, there were no significant differences between groups of PA-TACE and non-TACE in terms of median OS and DFS before and after PSM (all P\u2009> 0.05), and PA-TACE was not a significant prognostic factor of both OS and DFS before and after PSM (all P\u2009> 0.05). In the subgroup of patients with elevated γ-GT, significant differences were found between groups of PA-TACE and non-TACE in terms of median OS and DFS before and after PSM (all P\u2009< 0.05), and PA-TACE was an independent prognostic factor of both OS and DFS (all P\u2009< 0.05). Conclusion Currently, we concluded that patients with more advanced HCC also have more elevated γ-GT, and these patients with elevated γ-GT would be benefited more from PA-TACE after radical resection. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-021-08843-z.