Prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma patients with bile duct tumor thrombus after hepatic resection or liver transplantation in Asian populations: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) with bile duct tumor thrombus (BDTT) in the clinic is rare, and surgical treatment is currently considered the most effective treatment. However, the influence of BDTT on the prognosis of HCC patients who underwent surgery remains controversial in previous studies. Therefore, this paper uses meta-analysis method to elucidate this controversy. METHODS: In this study, we conducted a literature search on databases PubMed, Embase and Web of Science from inception until September 2016. Each study was evaluated with Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The pooled effect was calculated, and the association between BDTT and overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS) was reevaluated using meta-analysis for hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: A total of 11 studies was included containing 5295 patients. The (HR) for OS and DFS was 3.21 and 1.81, 95%CI was 2.34–4.39 and 1.17–2.78 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that HCC patients with BDTT had a worse prognosis than those without BDTT after hepatic resection or liver transplantation (LT).