Impact of marital status on overall survival in patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma

The purpose of the present research was to assess the prognostic impact of marital status in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with tumors <= 2 cm (stage Ia) based on the data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients who received a histopathologic HCC diagnosis between 2004 and 2016 were recruited. Overall survival (OS) was the major outcome measure. The Cox regression model and the Fine-Gray regression model were used for the purpose of comparing and examining the prognostic value of marital status for OS. The data for a total of 2446 stage Ia HCC patients were extracted from the database. The median overall survival time was 96.0 months, with 5-year and 10-year overall survival rates of 58.2% and 45.8%, respectively. In both the Fine-Gray regression model and Cox regression model, marital status [married vs. unmarried and others, both P < 0.001, hazard ratio (HR) = 1.389 for Cox and HR = 1.378 for Fine-Gray], age at diagnosis, tumor grade, and surgery at the primary site independently served as prognostic indicators associated with OS. In conclusion, positive marital status was independently associated with better OS for stage Ia HCC patients, and its prognostic influence should be validated in the near future.