Assessment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Infected with Covid-19 Infection during the Pandemic

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients are more susceptible to decompensation if they get Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection that leads to significant reduction in HCC related health services, reduction in surveillance activities and progression of HCC. On the other hand, symptoms of covid-19 infection are usually severe in HCC patients. Assessment of severity of covid-19 infection in HCC patients. And assessment of clinical course and outcome of HCC patients when they get infected by Covid-19. This is a retrospective case control study including 100 HCC patients (50 of them were infected by covid-19 while the other 50 were not infected). All patients were Egyptians presented to HCC clinic in national hepatology & tropical research institute (NHTMRI) from 1/2022 to 1/2023 assessed for covid-19 infection (by typical CT chest, covid swab and covid symptoms) and assessed for HCC staging (by Barcelona clinic liver cancer BCLC), clinical course over six months (by Child Pugh score) and mortality rates. Most of Covid-19 infected HCC patients had severe covid symptoms and progressive HCC course with mortality 72%, while low percentage of covid-19 HCC infected group were mild with stationary course. On the other hand, high percentage of non-infected HCC group have stationary HCC course with low mortality 24%. COVID-19 infection seems to have a significant effect on clinical course and outcome of HCC. Also, HCC patients are vulnerable to have more severe COVID-19 symptoms.