Medicine (Baltimore)
Post-treatment alpha-fetoprotein response predicts prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A meta-analysis.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND
Post-treatment alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) response has been reported to be associated with prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, but the results were not consistent. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the relationship between AFP response and clinical outcomes of HCC.
METHODS
PubMed, Embase, Medline and Cochrane library were searched for relevant articles published before March 20, 2019. The data were analyzed using RevMan5.3 software.
RESULTS
Twenty-nine articles with 4726 HCC patients were finally included for analysis. The pooled results showed that post-treatment AFP response was significantly associated with overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.35-0.47, P <.001), progression free survival (PFS) (HR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.39-0.54, P <.001) and recurrence free survival (RFS) (HR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.29-0.56, P <.001) of HCC patients.
CONCLUSION
post-treatment AFP response might be a useful prognostic marker for HCC patients.
Related Questions
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New answer by Medical Oncologist at Mary Lanning Healthcare Morrison Cancer Center/University of Nebraska Medical Center Adjunct Faculty (March 22, 2022)
Elevated AFP levels are indicative of high tumor aggressivity, and microvascular invasion (MVI). (Fan et al., PMID 23321029) Post-treatment AFP response may serve as a non-inv...