Nomogram to Predict the Long-Term Overall Survival of Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Radiofrequency Ablation

Yuan Hung Kuo, Tzu Hsin Huang, Yi Hao Yen, Sheng Nan Lu, Jing Houng Wang, Chao Hung Hung, Chien Hung Chen, Ming Chao Tsai, Kwong Ming Kee*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

Our objective was to develop a predictive nomogram that could estimate the long-term survival of patients with very early/early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) undergoing radiofrequency ablation (RFA). For this retrospective study, we enrolled 950 patients who initially received curative RFA for HCC at Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stages 0 and A between 2002 and 2016. Factors predicting poor survival after RFA were investigated through a Cox proportional hazard model. The nomogram was constructed using the investigated variables influencing overall survival (OS). After a median follow-up time of 6.25 years, 400 patients had died, and 17 patients had received liver transplantation. The 1-,3-,5-,7-, and 10-year OS rates were 94.5%, 73.5%, 57.9%, 45.7%, and 35.8%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that age greater than 65 years, albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) grades 2 and 3, AST-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) greater than 1, tumor size larger than 3 cm, diabetes mellitus, end-stage renal disease, and tumor number greater than 1 were significantly associated with poor OS. The nomogram was constructed using these seven variables. The validation results showed a good concordance index of 0.683. When comparing discriminative ability to tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM), BCLC, and Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) staging systems, our nomogram had the highest C-index for predicting mortality. This nomogram provides useful information on prognosis post-RFA as a primary treatment and aids physicians in decision-making.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3156
JournalCancers
Volume15
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 12 06 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the authors.

Keywords

  • BCLC early stage
  • hepatocellular carcinoma
  • nomogram
  • radiofrequency ablation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Nomogram to Predict the Long-Term Overall Survival of Early-Stage Hepatocellular Carcinoma after Radiofrequency Ablation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this