Effect of Microvascular Invasion on the Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Analysis of Related Risk Factors: A Two-Center Study

Objective: Microvascular invasion is considered to initiate intrahepatic metastasis and postoperative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to analyze the effect of MVI on the prognosis in HCC and identify related risk factors for microvascular invasion (MVI). Methods: The clinical data of 553 HCC patients who underwent liver surgery at Qingdao University from January 2014 to December 2018 and 89 patients at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital treated between October 2014 and October 2019 were collected retrospectively. We explored the impact of MVI on the prognosis of patients with HCC using Kaplan-Meier analysis. We conducted logistic regression analysis to identify variables significantly related to MVI. Results: Pathological examination confirmed the presence of MVI in 265 patients (41.3%). Six factors independently correlated with MVI were incorporated into the multivariate logistic regression analysis: Edmondson-Steiner grade [odds ratio (OR) = 3.244, 95%CI: 2.243-4.692; p < 0.001], liver capsule invasion (OR = 1.755; 95%CI: 1.215-2.535; p = 0.003), bile duct tumor thrombi (OR = 20.926; 95%CI: 2.552-171.553; p = 0.005), α-fetoprotein (> 400 vs. < 400 ng/ml; OR = 1.530; 95%CI: 1.017-2.303; p = 0.041), tumor size (OR = 1.095; 95%CI: 1.027-1.166; p = 0.005), and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (OR = 1.086; 95%CI: 1.016-1.162; p = 0.015). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.743 (95%CI: 0.704-0.781; p < 0.001), indicating that our logistic regression model had significant clinical usefulness. Conclusions: We analyzed the effect of MVI on the prognosis in HCC and evaluated the risk factors for MVI, which could be helpful in making decisions regarding patients with a high risk of recurrence.