Impact of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection on postoperative recovery in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma resection.

BACKGROUND: The impact of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection on postoperative recovery of patients who underwent liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains uncertain given the lack of sufficient evidence. AIM: To investigate the impact of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection on postoperative recovery of patients who underwent liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Patients who were pathologically diagnosed with HCC and underwent elective partial hepatectomy in Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital between January 2022 and April 2023 were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. The patients were divided into two groups based on their history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Rehabilitation parameters, including postoperative liver function, incidence of complications, and hospitalization expenses, were compared between the two groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to reduce confounding bias. RESULTS: We included 172 patients (58 with and 114 without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection) who underwent liver resection for HCC. No significant differences in the rehabilitation parameters were observed between the two groups. After PSM, 58 patients were selected from each group to form the new comparative groups. Similar results were obtained within the population after PSM. CONCLUSION: Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection does not appear to affect postoperative rehabilitation, including liver function, postoperative complications, or hospitalization expenses among patients with HCC after elective partial hepatectomy.

Efficacy of hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy and its combination strategies for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma: A network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: With the rapid progress of systematic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), therapeutic strategies combining hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) with systematic therapy arised increasing concentrations. However, there have been no systematic review comparing HAIC and its combination strategies in the first-line treatment for advanced HCC. AIM: To investigate the efficacy and safety of HAIC and its combination therapies for advanced HCC. METHODS: A network meta-analysis was performed by including 9 randomized controlled trails and 35 cohort studies to carry out our study. The outcomes of interest comprised overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), tumor response and adverse events. Hazard ratios (HR) and odds ratios (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated and agents were ranked based on their ranking probability. RESULTS: HAIC outperformed Sorafenib (HR = 0.55, 95%CI: 0.42-0.72; HR = 0.51, 95%CI: 0.33-0.78; OR = 2.86, 95%CI: 1.37-5.98; OR = 5.45, 95%CI: 3.57-8.30; OR = 7.15, 95%CI: 4.06-12.58; OR = 2.89, 95%CI: 1.99-4.19; OR = 0.48, 95%CI: 0.25-0.92, respectively) and transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) (HR = 0.50, 95%CI: 0.33-0.75; HR = 0.62, 95%CI: 0.39-0.98; OR = 3.08, 95%CI: 1.36-6.98; OR = 2.07, 95%CI: 1.54-2.80; OR = 3.16, 95%CI: 1.71-5.85; OR = 2.67, 95%CI: 1.59-4.50; OR = 0.16, 95%CI: 0.05-0.54, respectively) in terms of efficacy and safety. HAIC + lenvatinib + ablation, HAIC + ablation, HAIC + anti- programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), and HAIC + radiotherapy had the higher likelihood of providing better OS and PFS outcomes compared to HAIC alone. HAIC + TACE + S-1, HAIC + lenvatinib, HAIC + PD-1, HAIC + TACE, and HAIC + sorafenib had the higher likelihood of providing better partial response and objective response rate outcomes compared to HAIC. HAIC + PD-1, HAIC + TACE + S-1 and HAIC + TACE had the higher likelihood of providing better complete response and disease control rate outcomes compared to HAIC alone. CONCLUSION: HAIC proved more effective and safer than sorafenib and TACE. Furthermore, combined with other interventions, HAIC showed improved efficacy over HAIC monotherapy according to the treatment ranking analysis.