Background/aim: We aimed to examine the relationship between antibodies to hepatitis B core antigen (anti-HBc) positivity and survival in patients with non-B non-C hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC) who underwent curative treatment.
Patients and methods: A total of 260 patients with NBNC-HCC who underwent curative therapy were analyzed. They included 124 anti-HBc-positive patients (47.7%) and 136 anti-HBc-negative patients (52.3%). Overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates were compared.
Results: The 3-year cumulative OS rates were 75.9% in the anti-HBc-positive group and 82.3% in the anti-HBc-negative group (p=0.069). The corresponding RFS rates were 29.8% in the anti-HBc-positive group and 43.0% in the anti-HBc-negative group (p=0.001). Multivariate analyses identified anti-HBc positivity (p=0.006), aspartate aminotransferase ≥ 40 IU/l (p=0.037) and des-γ-carboxy prothrombin ≥ 100 mAU/ml (p=0.046) as significant adverse predictors were linked to RFS.
Conclusion: Anti-HBc positivity can be a useful predictor for recurrence in patients with NBNC-HCC after curative therapy.
Keywords: Hepatitis B core antigen antibody; curative therapy; non-B non-C hepatocellular carcinoma; overall survival; recurrence-free survival.