Objective To explore the predictive value of preoperative serum heat shock protein 90α (HSP90α) level in combination with the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE). Methods The HCC patients confirmed by histopathological examination and underwent TAC at Guigang People’s Hospital from January 2022 to June 2023 were as the observation group, the healthy individuals who underwent physical examinations during the same period and same hospital as the control group. The blood before treatment and on the day of the physical examination was collected to detected the HSP90α and albumin levels, as well as lymphocyte count. The PNI was calculated [PNI=albumin (g/L)+5×lymphocyte count (×10⁹/L)]. The clinical outcome (tumor progression or death) was observed within one year after TACE treatment, those without tumor progression or death were defined as a good prognosis, while those with tumor progression or death were defined as a poor prognosis. Using the multivariate unconditional logistic regression analysis to identify the risk factors affecting the poor prognosis for HCC patients, and the receive operating characteristic (ROC) curve to evaluate the predictive value of serum HSP90α level in combination with PNI in distinguishing prognosis after TACE treatment. Results In this study, there were 178 cases in the observation group and 100 cases in the control group. The serum HSP90α level (μg/L) in the observation group was higher than that in the control group (96.40±33.57 vs. 52.19±22.13, t=3.191, P<0.001), and the PNI value was lower than that in the control group (43.70±5.24 vs. 56.46±6.86, t=–16.144, P<0.001); Within one year after TACE, there were 70 patients with poor prognosis and 108 patients with good prognosis. The serum HSP90α (μg/L) level in the patients with poor prognosis was higher than that in the patients with good prognosis (117.33±29.48 vs. 82.83±28.84, t=7.726, P<0.001), and the PNI was lower than that in the control group (40.49±4.18 vs. 45.78±4.80, t=–7.548, P<0.001). The multivariate unconditional logistic regression analysis found that the probabilities of incidence of poor prognosis after TACE treatment were higher in the patients with Chinese liver cancer staging Ⅲa–Ⅲb stage [reference: Ⅰ–Ⅱa stage [OR (95%CI)=5.332 (1.058, 26.875), P=0.043] and increased age and HSP90α level [OR (95%CI)=1.100 (1.025, 1.180), P=0.008; OR (95%CI)=1.049 (1.029, 1.070), P<0.001] , as well as decreased PNI value [OR (95%CI)=0.772 (0.686, 0.869), P<0.001]. The area under the ROC curve after TACE in the HCC patients by serum HSP90α level in combination with PNI was 0.878 [95% CI (0.820, 0.922)] in differentiating poor prognosis or not. Conclusion The analysis results of this study suggest that preoperative serum HSP90α level in combination with PNI has a higher predictive value for prognosis of HCC patients after TACE.

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