title: Prognostic significance of antithrombin III levels for outcomes in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after curative hepatectomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although several studies have shown that serum antithrombin III (ATIII) has anti-inflammatory effects, the prognostic value of ATIII in HCC is unknown. We investigated the influence of preoperative ATIII levels on the outcome of patients who underwent hepatectomy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from 440 patients (314 patients with ATIII ≥ 70 % and 126 patients with ATIII <70 %) who underwent curative hepatectomy for HCC were retrospectively collected and analyzed. To overcome bias due to the different distribution of covariates for the 2 groups, propensity score matching was performed on the patients, and outcomes were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The propensity score analysis revealed that 65 patients with ATIII of ≥ 70 % (group 1) and 65 patients with ATIII of <70 % (group 2) had the same preoperative and operative characteristics (excluding the ATIII level). The overall survival rate and the disease-free survival rate was significantly higher in group 1 than in group 2 (P = 0.005 and 0.011, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that ATIII was a significant favorable factor for overall survival and disease-free survival of patients with HCC after curative hepatectomy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prognosis of patients with HCC was found to be associated with preoperative antithrombin III levels. ATIII may be useful for predicting outcomes of patients with HCC after curative hepatectomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Hiroshima University Hospital, Hiroshima, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iwako
authors.forename: Hirotaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tashiro
authors.forename: Hironobu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Amano
authors.forename: Yoshisato
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oshita
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Shintaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: Hirofumi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tazawa
authors.forename: Junko
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nambu
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mikuriya
authors.forename: Tomoyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohdan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000990:Antithrombin III / Q000378:metabolism*; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000097:blood*; D057216:Propensity Score; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000990:Antithrombin III