Serum levels of ferritin do not affect the prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing radiofrequency ablation

A new discovery of STAT4 single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with hepatocellular carcinoma risk in Chinese Han population: a case-control study

BACKGROUND

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common fatal malignant tumor worldwide. STAT4 is HCC susceptibility gene identified by genome-wide association study. The purpose of this study was to determine the association between four candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in STAT4 genes and HCC risk in Chinese Han population.

METHODS

A case-control study was conducted to assess the association between STAT4 SNPs and HCC risk in 1011 Chinese Han population. Agena MassARRAY was used to genotype SNPs. The association between SNPs and HCC susceptibility under different genetic models was evaluated by logistic regression analysis. Multifactorial dimension reduction (MDR) analyzed the interaction of 'SNP-SNP' in HCC risk. The difference of clinical characteristics between different genotypes was completed by ANOVA.

RESULTS

The results showed that STAT4 rs11889341 was significantly associated with HCC risk under multiple genetic models (homozygote: OR = 0.60, p = 0.033; recessive: OR = 0.63, p = 0.028; log-additive: OR = 0.83, p = 0.032). The results of subgroup analysis showed that STAT4 rs11889341 is significantly associated with HCC risk with participants who were > 55 years, male or smoking. Both STAT4 rs7574865 and rs10174238 were significantly associated with HCC risk among participants who were > 55 years old, smoking or drinking. STAT4 haplotype (Trs11889341Trs7574865) could reduce the risk of HCC. In addition, rs11889341 and rs7574865 were significantly associated with the level of serum ferritin.

CONCLUSION

STAT4 rs11889341, rs7574865 or rs10174238 is potentially associated with HCC risk in Chinese Han population. In particular, rs11889341 showed outstanding association with HCC risk.

Meta-analysis of the prognostic value of pretreatment serum ferritin in hepatobiliary and pancreas (HBP) cancers

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Studies have shown that serum ferritin (SF) has unfavourable prognostic value in hepatobiliary and pancreas (HBP) cancers. This meta-analysis aimed to comprehensively assess the prognostic role of pretreatment SF in patients with HBP cancers.

METHODS

Eligible studies published before January 2020 were obtained through a comprehensive search in the PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and EMBASE databases. Pooled HRs and 95% CIs were then employed as effect sizes.

RESULTS

Seven studies comprising 1244 patients were pooled. Elevated pretreatment SF was associated with worse overall survival (OS) (HR 1.60, 95% CI 1.36 to 1.88, p<0.001) and recurrence-free survival/progression-free survival/time to recurrence (HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.15 to 2.52, p=0.008). Significant prognostic value of elevated pretreatment SF on OS was detected in the subgroups regardless of the cancer type, race, SF cut-off value, tumour-node-metastasis stage and Newcastle-Ottawa Scale score.

CONCLUSION

Elevated pretreatment SF was associated with worse survival outcome of patients with HBP cancers. As such, it may serve as a novel prognostic biomarker for HBP cancers.

Serum Ferritin Levels: A Potential Biomarker to Represent Child-Turcotte-Pugh Score among Decompensated Liver Cirrhosis Patients

Background

Liver cirrhosis and the child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP) score are inseparable entities in liver disease. CTP score is largely known as the mortality and prognosis predictor. Nevertheless, ferritin emerges as a simple biomarker related to prognosis. The study aimed to determine whether there was a significant correlation between serum ferritin levels and CTP score.

Methods

The study analysed 54 decompensated liver cirrhotic patients including 17 females and 37 males between May 2016 and May 2017 at the Haji Adam Malik General Hospital, Medan, Indonesia. Ferritin levels were, then, divided into trichotomous cut-off value (< 200 ng/mL, n = 22; 200–400 ng/mL, n = 5; and > 400 ng/mL, n = 27). Data was analysed using SPSS version 12.0 (continuous variables were assessed by the Kruskal-Wallis test and Chi-square test was used for categorical variables). In addition, Spearman correlation test was used to determine any significant correlation between ferritin levels and CTP score.

Results

Based on data analysis, gender and CTP score were related to higher ferritin levels (P = 0.002 and P = 0.018, respectively). Furthermore, a significant correlation between serum ferritin levels and CTP score was obtained in to moderate degree (P = 0.000; r = 0.487).

Conclusions

There might be a significant role of serum ferritin levels in predicting mortality and prognosis among decompensated liver cirrhosis patients but it still needs further attention.