Prognostic value of systemic inflammation score in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy

Inflammation plays an important role in cancer progression. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prognostic value of the systemic inflammatory biomarkers in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients undergoing curative resection. Data from 271 HCC patients who underwent curative resection in Zhongshan Hospital between 2008 and 2011 were included. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) were significantly associated with overall survival(OS) and time to recurrence(TTR). We created a systemic inflammation score (SIS) basing on preoperative serum GGT and LMR. Low SIS was also significantly associated with increased OS and TTR. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed the LMR, GGT and SIS were independent predictors for OS and TTR. The predictive ability of the SIS, as assessed by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, was 0.682 (95% CI, 0.618-0.746) for OS, which was higher than GGT and LMR. In conclusion, low preoperative LMR and high preoperative GGT were associated with a poor prognosis in HCC patients after hepatectomy. Our results confirmed that the SIS qualifies as a novel prognostic predictor of HCC patients after hepatectomy.