Open AccessSerum levels of ferritin do not affect the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radiofrequency ablation
Author(s) -
Koji Uchino,
Ryosuke Tateishi,
Ryo Nakagomi,
Naoto Fujiwara,
Tatsuya Minami,
Masaya Sato,
Kenichiro Enooku,
Hayato Nakagawa,
Yoshinari Asaoka,
Yuji Kondo,
Junji Shibahara,
Shuichiro Shiina,
Kazuhiko Koike
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0200943
Subject(s) - hepatocellular carcinoma , medicine , ferritin , gastroenterology , pathological , radiofrequency ablation , quartile , cohort , stage (stratigraphy) , ablation , confidence interval , paleontology , biology
Background & aims Hepatic iron accumulation can accelerate liver injury in patients with various chronic liver diseases and lead to hepatocarcinogenesis. We elucidated the impact of serum levels of ferritin on the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in a large cohort. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 578 treatment-naïve HCC patients who underwent RFA. We divided our cohort into four groups by the quartile points of serum ferritin level: G1 (≤55 ng/mL, n = 148), G2 (56–130 ng/mL, n = 142), G3 (131–243 ng/mL, n = 144) and G4 (≥244 ng/mL, n = 144). We analyzed the recurrence and survival of patients using the Kaplan–Meier method. We also evaluated pathological iron deposition among patients with a solitary tumor smaller than 2 cm. Results The cumulative rates of overall recurrence and survival at 5 years were 81.6% and 66.3%, respectively. The serum levels of ferritin were correlated with pathological iron deposition. There were no significant differences in recurrence and survival rates according to serum levels of ferritin and pathological hepatic iron deposition. Conclusions Serum levels of ferritin do not affect the prognosis of HCC patients undergoing RFA.