Prognostic value of a novel risk classification of microvascular invasion in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after resection

// Hui Zhao 1,2,* , Chuang Chen 1,3,* , Xu Fu 4,* , Xiaopeng Yan 4 , Wenjun Jia 4 , Liang Mao 4 , Huihan Jin 2 and Yudong Qiu 1,4 1 Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China 2 Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Nanjing Medical University Affiliated Wuxi Second Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China 3 Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, Huai’an Hospital Affiliated to Xuzhou Medical University, Second People’s Hospital of Huai’an City, Huai’an, Jiangsu, China 4 Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, the Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Yudong Qiu, email: // Huihan Jin, email: // Keywords : hepatocellular carcinoma; microvascular invasion; risk classification; prognosis Received : July 16, 2016 Accepted : September 21, 2016 Published : October 09, 2016 Abstract Objectives: The present research aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of a novel risk classification of microvascular invasion (MVI) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after resection. Methods: A total of 295 consecutive HCC patients underwent hepatectomy were included in our study. We evaluated the degree of MVI according to the following three features: the number of invaded microvessels (≤5 vs >5), the number of invading carcinoma cells (≤ 50 vs >50), the distance of invasion from tumor edge (≤1 cm vs >1 cm). Results: All patients were divided into three groups according to the three risk factors of MVI: non-MVI group ( n =180), low-MVI group ( n =60) and high-MVI group ( n =55). The overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates of high-MVI group were significantly poorer than those of low-MVI and non-MVI groups ( P