Abstract: Objective The aim of this study was to explore impact of cancerous Kita-Kyushu lung cancer antigen-1 (KK-LC-1) expression on prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing target and immunotherapy after hepatectomy. Methods Retrospective analysis of clinical data of 200 patients with HCC was conducted in Second Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Medical College between November 2019 and January 2022, all patients underwent hepatectomy immediately with oral apatinib and intravenous carilizumab treatment and followed-up for three and half years. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was applied to identify independent factors affecting patient prognosis and ROC was used to predict efficacy. Results By end of three and a half years of follow-up, 160 patients survived and 40 (20.0%)died, with survival period of 5 to 42 months (mean:37.6±10.1 m); percentages of patients with tumor diameter of greater than 5 cm and with low cancerous KK-LC-1 expression in dead group were 65.0% and 77.5%, both significantly higher than 39.4% and 13.8%(P＜0.05), and serum AFP level was (402.4±41.7)μg/L, significantly higher than [(350.4±34.4) μg/L, P＜0.01] in survival group; multivariate Logistics regression analysis showed that large tumor diameter and high serum AFP levels were independent risk factors for poor prognosis of patients with HCC, while strong cancerous KK-LC-1 expression was the protecting factor for patients with HCC (P＜0.05); the AUCs were 0.628(95%CI=0.557-0.695), 0.829(95%CI=0.769-0.878) and 0.819(95%CI=0.758-0.870), when tumor diameter, serum AFP level and cancerous KK-LC-1 expression were applied to predict prognosis of patients with HCC in this setting. Conclusion Strong cancerous KK-LC-1 expression might benefit patients with HCC receiving target and immunotherapy, and mechanism needs further investigation.

Key words: Hepatoma, Kita-Kyushu lung cancer antigen-1, Target therapy, Immunotherapy, Prognosis