To explore the impact factors for the waiting time to surgery (TTS) and its impact upon the postoperative prognosis of patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer B stage (BCLC-B) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Clinical data of 118 patients with BCLC-B HCC admitted to the Cancer Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University from June 2008 to June 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 103 patients were male and 15 were female, aged (53±2) years on average. The informed consents of all patients were obtained and the local ethical committee approval was received. The grouping threshold of TTP was determined by piecewise polynomial Cox's regression analysis. The impact factors for TTP was analyzed using multivariate Logistic regression analysis. Survival analysis was conducted with Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Log-rank test. The impact of TTP on the postoperative prognosis of patients was evaluated by Cox's proportional hazards model.

The TTP was ranged from 1 to 61 d with a median time of 12 d. The optimal threshold of TTP was 14 d. According to this threshold time, all patients were divided into TTP ≤14 d and >14 d groups. Logistic regression analysis indicated that tumor diameter was a protective factor for TTP ( HR=0.86, 95%CI:0.76-0.99;P<0.05), whereas liver cirrhosis was an independent risk factor for TTP (HR=2.46, 95%CI:1.10-5.47;P<0.05). Multivariate Cox's regression analysis revealed that TTP was not significantly correlated with the recurrence-free survival (HR=0.72, 95%CI:0.39-1.31;P>0.05). TTP was also not significantly associated with the overall survival (HR=0.59, 95%CI:0.25-1.38;P>0.05).

The TTP of BCLC-B HCC patients is relatively short. Tumor diameter and liver cirrhosis are the independent impact factors for TTP. However, TTP does not affect the survival prognosis of patients.

Carcinoma, hepatocellular; Risk factors; Prognosis