Elevation of serum GGT and LDH levels, together with higher BCLC staging are associated with poor overall survival from hepatocellular carcinoma: a retrospective analysis.

Serum biomarkers predicting prognosis have not been adequately explored in HCC patients. The aim of this study was to investigate prognostic significance of parameters of liver function, tumor markers, and other clinicopathological features in HCC patients. Medical records of HCC patients were retrospectively extracted and overall survival was evaluated with the Kaplan-Meier method. Significant difference was estimated with the Log rank method. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used for the study of significance of prognostic factor. A total of 273 HCC patients were included in this analysis. According to the Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier event analysis, GGT and LDH levels of liver function tests were significantly associated with HCC overall survival. Elevated serum CEA level was a risk factor related to poor HCC overall survival. And advanced BCLC staging contributed to a lower overall survival in HCC patients. HCC could benefit from surgical resection, TACE, and radiotherapy. ROC curves demonstrated that different from CEA, elevated GGT and LDH could accurately predict HCC overall survival. In conclusion, serum GGT and LDH together with higher BCLC staging should be potential predictive factors for HCC overall survival.