Body mass index and cholesterol level predict surgical outcome in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma in Taiwan - a cohort study

// Ya-Ling Lee 1,2,3,* , Wan-Chun Li 3,4,5,* , Tung-Hu Tsai 5,6 , Hsin-Yu Chiang 4 and Chin-Tsung Ting 6,7 1 Institute of Public Health and Community Medicine Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 2 Department of Dentistry, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 3 Department of Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 4 Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 5 Department of Education and Research, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan 6 Institute of Traditional Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan 7 Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Ren-Ai Branch, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Chin-Tsung Ting, email: // Keywords : hepatocellular carcinoma, body mass index, serum cholesterol level, curative surgical resection, prognostic indicator Received : September 21, 2015 Accepted : March 06, 2016 Published : March 24, 2016 Abstract Curative surgical resection (CSR) remains the most effective therapeutic intervention for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, frequent post-surgical recurrence leads to high cancer related mortality. This study aimed to clarify the role of body mass index (BMI) and serum cholesterol level in predicting post-surgical outcomes in HCC patients after CSR. A total of 484 HCC patients including 213 BMI high and 271 BMI low patients were included. Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were examined in patients with differential BMI and serum cholesterol level. The analysis showed that significant different 1-, 3- and 5-year cumulative OS rates ( P-value =0.015) and RFS rate ( P-value =0.010) between BMI low and BMI high patients. Further analysis in groups with differential serum cholesterol levels among BMI low and BMI high patients indicated that the BMI low /Chol low patients exhibited the significant lower cumulative OS and RFS rates in comparison with the remaining subjects ( P-value =0.007 and 0.039 for OS and RFS rates, respectively). In conclusion, the coexistence of low BMI and low serum cholesterol level could serve as prognostic factors to predict post-operative outcomes in HCC patients undergoing surgical hepatectomy.