Ascites and alpha-fetoprotein improve prognostic performance of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population n (%)

	BCLC A	BCLC B
Number	n = 496	n = 564
Age (yr), mean ± SD	56.2 ± 8.3	56.6 ± 8.7
Male	414 (83.5)	452 (80.3)
Cirrhosis	448 (90.5)	510 (90.4)
Ascites	91 (18.3)	151 (26.8)
Etiology of liver disease
HCV	986 (93)	973 (91.8)
HBV	43 (4)	52 (4.9)
Non-HCV, non-HBV	31 (3)	35 (3.3)
AFP (ng/mL), mean (range)	365 (20-12, 660)	890 (20-26, 400)
AFP ≥ 200 (ng/mL)	166 (33.5)	242 (42.9)
Number of tumor nodule
One	404 (81.5)	0
Two	53 (10.7)	204 (36.2)
Three	39 (7.9)	187 (33.1)
More than three	0	173 (30.7)
Size of nodule, mean ± SD	3.9 ± 1.8	7.4 ± 2.7
Child-Pugh
A	268 (54)	261 (46.3)
B	228 (46)	303 (53.7)
Treatment modality
Resection	113 (22.8)	0
Transplantation	7 (1.4)	0
PEI	62 (12.5)	0
RFA	262 (52.8)	0
Microwave ablation	18 (3.6)	0
TACE	34 (6.9)	564 (100)
Biochemical data, mean ± SD
Serum total bilirubin (mg/dL)	1.5 ± 1.3	1.5 ± 1.1
Serum albumin (g/dL)	3.3 ± 0.6	3.3 ± 0.6
International normalized ratio	1.2 ± 0.4	1.2 ± 0.5
ALT (IU/mL)	63 ± 45	62 ± 58
AST (IU/mL)	82 ± 61	83 ± 80

Data are frequency counts (percentage of total) or mean ± SD. AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; BCLC: Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; RFA: Radiofrequency ablation; PEI: Percutaneous ethanol injection; TACE: Trans-arterial chemoembolization.