Arterial chemoembolization for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and elevated lactate dehydrogenase is associated with low survival: a cohort study

PURPOSE: Serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) concentration has been used for the evaluation and prediction of prognosis of several tumors, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, the relationship between changes in LDH after treatment (ΔLDH) and prognosis is still unclear. Herein, we aimed to determine this association in patients with HCC. METHODS: Multivariate adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for HCC were obtained by Cox proportional hazard regression models. As for ΔLDH and overall survival (OS), the nonlinear relationship was evaluated through a restricted cubic spline regression analysis, and threshold effects were further calculated using a two-piece-wise Cox proportional hazard model. RESULTS: The study finally selected 749 patients with HCC treated by transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for the secondary analysis. Considering the ΔLDH within ± 80 U/L group as the baseline, the risk of death in the ΔLDH ≥ 80 U/L group was significantly increased by 131% (95% CI: 1.74–3.06), and the risk of death in the ΔLDH ≤− 80 U/L group was increased by 24% (HR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.99–1.55). However, this difference was not statistically significant. Furthermore, with ΔLDH = 0 (100 U/L) as the turning point, an upward U-shaped curve could be formed between ΔLDH and OS. After adjusting for confounders, ΔLDH still had a significant effect on the threshold of OS (P = 0.021). CONCLUSION: After TACE, with the increase of LDH index, HCC patients will be closely related to worse OS. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13027-022-00443-1.