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Background & Aims Thrombocytosis is associated with metastasis in many human cancers. Most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) develop in cirrhotic livers, which are characterized by thrombocytopenia. We aimed to elucidate the pretreatment platelet count in prediction of extrahepatic metastasis of HCC during the follow-up. Methods Three cohorts containing 1660, 480 and 965 HCC patients enrolled from three hospitals were used for discovery and validation respectively. Pretreatment clinical factors associated with extrahepatic metastasis during follow-up up to 5 years were identified using multivariate Cox regression model. Results In early-stage HCC (BCLC stage 0-A), pretreatment platelet count (hazard ratio [HR], 1.04 per 10,000/μl; 95% CI, 1.01–1.07; P = 0.010) and serum alpha-foetoprotein (AFP) >100 ng/ml (HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.04–2.78; P = 0.033) were the only two independent factors associated with extrahepatic metastasis. Receiver operating characteristic evidenced that pretreatment platelet count predicted metastasis better than AFP did. Survival tree analysis identified platelet counts 212,000/μl (HR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.67–2.70; P |
