Baseline characteristics of the training sample (n = 403)
| Variable | n (%) |
|---|---|
| CLIP, Cancer of the Liver Italian Program; BCLC, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; PEIT, percutaneous ethanol injection therapy; PMCT, percutaneous microwave coagulation therapy; TAE, transcatheter arterial embolisation; AFP, α fetoprotein; HBsAg, hepatitis B surface antigen; HCVAb, anti-hepatitis C virus antibody. | |
| Age (y) (median (range)) | 64 (35–87) |
| Male sex | 293 (72.7%) |
| Viral infection | |
| HBsAg positive | 39 (9.6%) |
| Anti-HCVAb positive | 336 (83.4%) |
| Both positive | 6 (1.5%) |
| Both negative | 34 (8.4%) |
| Child-Pugh classification | |
| Class A | 222 (55.1%) |
| Class B | 160 (39.7%) |
| Class C | 21 (5.2%) |
| Tumour characteristics | |
| Size of tumour (cm) | |
| <2 | 134 (33.3%) |
| 2–5 | 234 (58.1%) |
| >5 | 35 (8.7%) |
| No of nodules | |
| Single | 215 (53.3%) |
| 2–3 | 135 (33.5%) |
| >3 | 53 (13.2%) |
| Portal invasion, present | 4 (1.0%) |
| AFP (ng/ml) | |
| <100 | 308 (76.4%) |
| 100–400 | 58 (14.3%) |
| >400 | 37 (9.2%) |
| Okuda stage | |
| I | 296 (73.4%) |
| II | 107 (26.6%) |
| III | 0 (0%) |
| CLIP score | |
| 0 | 118 (29.3%) |
| 1 | 165 (40.9%) |
| 2 | 98 (24.3%) |
| 3 | 18 (4.5%) |
| 4⩽ | 4 (1.0%) |
| BCLC staging | |
| A1 | 70 (17.4%) |
| A2 | 58 (14.4%) |
| A3 | 32 (7.9%) |
| A4 | 100 (24.8%) |
| B | 115 (28.5%) |
| C | 7 (1.7%) |
| D | 21 (5.2%) |
| Treatment modalities | |
| PEIT | 363 (90.0%) |
| PMCT | 26 (6.5%) |
| PEIT + PMCT | 14 (3.5%) |
| Combined with TAE | 54 (13.4%) |