Post-treatment alpha-fetoprotein response predicts prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Post-treatment alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) response has been reported to be associated with prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, but the results were not consistent. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the relationship between AFP response and clinical outcomes of HCC. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, Medline and Cochrane library were searched for relevant articles published before March 20, 2019. The data were analyzed using RevMan5.3 software. RESULTS: Twenty-nine articles with 4726 HCC patients were finally included for analysis. The pooled results showed that post-treatment AFP response was significantly associated with overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.35–0.47, P <.001), progression free survival (PFS) (HR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.39–0.54, P <.001) and recurrence free survival (RFS) (HR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.29–0.56, P <.001) of HCC patients. CONCLUSION: post-treatment AFP response might be a useful prognostic marker for HCC patients.