Individual and joint influence of cytokeratin 19 and microvascular invasion on the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the individual and combined associations of cytokeratin 19 (CK19) and microvascular invasion (MVI) with prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS: Clinicopathological data on 352 patients with HCC who underwent radical resection at our hospital between January 2013 and December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided into four groups: CK19(−)/MVI(−), CK19(−)/MVI(+), CK19(+)/MVI(−), and CK19(+)/MVI(+). RESULTS: Of the 352 HCC patients, 154 (43.8%) were CK19(−)/MVI(−); 116 (33.0%), CK19(−)/MVI(+); 31 (8.8%), CK19(+)/MVI(−); and 51 (14.5%), CK19(+)/MVI(+). The disease-free survival of CK19(−)/MVI(−) patients was significantly higher than that of CK19(−)/MVI(+) patients and CK19(+)/MVI(+) patients. Similar results were observed for overall survival. CK19(+)/MVI(+) patients showed significantly lower overall survival than the other three groups. CONCLUSIONS: CK19 expression and MVI predict poor prognosis after radical resection of HCC, and the two markers jointly contribute to poor OS. Combining CK19 and MVI may predict post-resection prognosis better than using either factor on its own.