Differential Survival Impact of Diabetes Mellitus on Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Role of Staging Determinants

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is common in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and may impact survival. Very few studies focused on the influence of DM in different clinical scenarios. We evaluated the prognostic impact of DM on HCC patients stratified by liver dysfunction, Milan criteria, and performance status defined in the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging parameters. A prospective dataset of 3573 HCC patients between 2002 and 2016 was retrospectively analyzed. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify independent prognostic predictors. The Kaplan–Meier method with a log-rank test was applied to compare the survival distributions between different patient groups. Among all, DM was not an independent prognostic predictor in the Cox multivariate analysis (p = 0.1044). In the subgroup analysis, DM was not a significant prognostic predictor in Child–Turcotte–Pugh class A or class B/C patients. However, DM was associated with a decreased survival in patients within the Milan criteria (hazard ratio [HR] 1.36, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.155–1.601, p = 0.0002) and in those with the performance status 0 (HR 1.213, 95% CI 1.055–1.394, p = 0.0067) in the multivariate Cox analysis, but not in those beyond the Milan criteria and poor performance status. DM is highly prevalent in HCC patients and has a distinct survival impact. DM is an independent survival predictor among patients within the Milan criteria and good performance status. These high-risk patients should be closely monitored, and aggressive anticancer treatment should be considered.