Histopathology. 2021 Apr 10. doi: 10.1111/his.14384. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma (cHCC-CCA) is an uncommon hepatic malignancy with a poor outcome. The 2019 WHO classification modified the definition and discarded the subtypes harboring stem cell features. However, the differences among cHCC-CCA, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), HCC with stem cell features (HCCscf) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA) remain undetermined. The aim of the study is to investigate the characteristics of cHCC-CCA in comparisons with other primary liver cancers utilizing the updated WHO classification.
METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively analyzed 64 cHCC-CCA and 55 HCCscf patients from Dec2007 to May2018. A propensity score matching was conducted to compare with HCC and iCCA patients. Clinicopathological characteristics, event-free (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated with multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression. In a median follow-up of 55.9 months, patients with cHCC-CCA had a significantly poor survival as compared with HCCscf and an intermediate survival outcome between HCC and iCCA. HBV infection and high tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) were associated with a favorable survival in cHCC-CCA. In the multivariate analysis, poor hepatic reserve, absence of HBV infection, stage IV disease and low TILs were significant negative prognostic factors in cHCC-CCA. After pooling with other primary liver cancers, tumor type of cHCC-CCA and iCCA predicted the worse survival results.
CONCLUSION: cHCC-CCA have an intermediate survival between HCC and iCCA and HBV infection and high TILs predict the favorable survival. Our study provides clinical correlations for the new 2019 WHO classification.
PMID:33837585 | DOI:10.1111/his.14384
