Liu Z, Luo Y, Fang A, et al. - In hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases, worse survival was observed in relation to higher serum fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) levels. This implies that serum FGF21 could serve as a novel metabolism-related prognostic biomarker for HCC.

• From the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort, a total of 825 newly diagnosed, previously untreated HCC patients were included in whom serum FGF21 levels were recorded.

• Inferior survival outcomes were evident in patients in the highest vs lowest tertile of serum FGF21 levels.

• Fully adjusted models showed hazard ratios (HRs) of 1.44 and 1.48 for liver cancer-specific survival (LCSS) and overall survival (OS), respectively.

• The links were not significantly altered by selected metabolic disorder diseases or states including arterial hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, fatty liver, cirrhosis, and body mass index ≥25.0 kg/m ² , except for that stronger links were noted in cases co-occurred more than three metabolic disorder diseases, with an HR of 2.01 for OS and 1.51 for LCSS.