Objective  To analyze the correlations of serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), soluble thymidine kinase-1 (TK-1) and T lymphocyte subsets with clinicopathological features of tumors and survival prognosis in patients with liver cancer.

  Methods  Clinical materials of 105 patients diagnosed as hepatocellular carcinoma from September 2018 to September 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, and serum VEGF, TK-1 and T lymphocyte subsets (percentages of CD3⁺, CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ and CD4⁺/CD8⁺) at hospital admission were detected.

  Results  VEGF and TK-1 at hospital admission were significantly correlated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, TNM staging, differentiation level, lymph node metastasis, vascular infiltration and survival prognosis (P < 0.05). The CD4⁺/CD8⁺ at hospital admission was significantly correlated with HBV infection, TNM staging, differentiation level, lymph node metastasis, vascular infiltration and survival prognosis (P < 0.05). Compared with before treatment, the levels of VEGF and TK-1 decreased significantly, the percentage of CD4⁺ and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ increased significantly, and the percentage of CD8⁺ decreased significantly in 105 patients with liver cancer after treatment (P < 0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that TNM staging (stage Ⅲto Ⅳ), lymph node metastasis, vascular infiltration, VEGF, TK-1 and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ were risk factors for survival prognosis (P < 0.05). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the values of area under the curve (AUC) of VEGF, TK-1 and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ in predicting survival prognosis were 0.824, 0.869 and 0.756, respectively, and the AUC of combined prediction was 0.912 (P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  The expressions of serum VEGF and TK-1 increase and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ decreases in patients with liver cancer, which are closely related to the clinicopathological features of tumors and the survival prognosis of patients. The combination of VEGF, TK-1 and CD4⁺/CD8⁺ has a high value in predicting the survival prognosis.