Abstract: Objective To investigate the relationship between peripheral blood regulatory T cells, cytokine
levels and tumor recurrence after liver transplantation in hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods Total of 98 cases
with liver cancer in Beijing Youan Hospital, Capital Medical University from April 2013 to January 2017
were selected as research objects, and retrospective study was applied. All patients were treated with modified
piggyback liver transplantation, the postoperative tumor recurrence were recorded, while the levels of peripheral
blood regulatory T cells and cytokines of IL-2, IL-10, IL-12 and IFN-γ were detected, and the prognosis were
followed up. Results All patients were successfully underwent liver transplantation, and 18 patients occurred
tumor recurrence after operation. The content of CD39 + in peripheral blood was (7.32 ± 3.38)% in recurrence
group, which was significantly lower than that in non-recurrence group [(16.52 ± 3.45)%, t = 8.287, P ＜
0.001]. The serum levels of IL-2, IL-12 and IFN-γ of patients in recurrence group were significantly lower
than those in non-recurrence group, while the serum levels of IL-10 was significantly higher than that in non-
recurrence group, the differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05). Multivariate Logistic analysis showed
that peripheral blood CD39 + , IFN-γ and IL-10 were the main factors affecting tumor recurrence (OR = 2.216,
2.062, 1.022; P = 0.022, 0.020, 0.003). The mortality rate in the recurrent group was higher than that in the non-
recurrent group (16.7% vs 2.5%), the difference was statistically significant (χ 2 = 6.114, P = 0.003). Conclusions
The tumor recurrence after liver transplantation in hepatocellular carcinoma was common and accompanied by
abnormal expression of peripheral blood regulatory T cells and cytokines, which were also the risk factors for
tumor recurrence and were conducive to the improvement of patients prognosis.