Establishment and validation of an intratumoral fibrosis-based nomogram for predicting aggressive recurrence after liver resection in hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Baseline clinical and pathologic characteristics of patients in training and validation cohorts

Baseline characteristics	Training (n = 855)	Validation (n = 148)	P value
Age (years), mean ± SD	53.6 ± 11.6	54.4 ± 13.1	0.460
Gender			0.052
Male	726 (84.9)	116 (78.4)
Female	129 (15.1)	32 (21.6)
Underlying liver diseases			0.254
Absence	92 (10.8)	19 (12.8)
HBV	677 (79.2)	120 (81.1)
Others	86 (10.1)	9 (6.1)
Liver cirrhosis			0.789
Absence	437 (51.1)	78 (52.7)
Presence	418 (48.9)	70 (47.3)
BCLC stage			0.758
0	80 ( 9.4)	12 (8.1)
A	775 (90.6)	136 (91.9)
B	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)
Neutrophil (× 109), median (IQR)	3.30 (2.41, 4.30)	3.30 (2.39, 4.35)	0.620
Lymphocyte (× 109), median (IQR)	1.38 (1.05, 1.73)	1.31 (1.02, 1.82)	0.758
Platelet (× 109), median (IQR)	155 (114, 205)	152 (85, 199)	0.088
Monocyte (× 109), median (IQR)	0.33 (0.24, 0.44)	0.38 (0.28, 0.53)	0.001
Albumin (g/L), median (IQR)	38.9 (36.3, 41.6)	41.4 (37.4, 44.0)	< 0.001
Total bilirubin (µmol/L), median (IQR)	13.7 (10.5, 18.2)	12.8 (9.6, 18.7)	0.197
ALT (U/L), median (IQR)	30.3 (20.8, 47.1)	33.1 (24.7, 48.3)	0.053
AST (U/L), median (IQR)	33.6 (24.3, 48.9)	40.2 (27.2, 52.4)	0.010
Creatine (µmol/L), median (IQR)	72.1 (62.5, 81.3)	61.4 (52.6, 73.8)	< 0.001
INR, median (IQR)	1.02 (0.96, 1.09)	1.00 (0.94, 1.08)	0.023
ALBI grade			< 0.001
I	393 (46.0)	101 (68.2)
II	462 (54.0)	47 (31.8)
AFP (ng/mL)			0.464
≤ 200	531 (62.1)	87 (58.8)
> 200	324 (37.9)	61 (41.2)
Tumor size (mm), median (IQR)	50.0 (31.0, 76.0)	47.7 (32.1, 76.7)	0.823
Up to seven criteria			0.580
Within	538 (62.9)	97 (65.5)
Beyond	317 (37.1)	51 (34.5)
LI-RADS			0.792
3	30 (3.5)	6 (4.1)
4	124 (14.5)	19 (12.8)
5	615 (71.9)	105 (70.9)
M	86 (10.1)	18 (12.2)
MVI			0.645
Negative	544 (63.6)	91 (61.5)
Positive	311 (36.4)	57 (38.5)
Satellite lesion			0.921
Absence	622 (72.7)	107 (72.3)
Presence	233 (27.3)	41 (27.7)
VETC pattern			0.705
Absence	579 (67.7)	98 (66.2)
Presence	276 (32.3)	50 (33.8)
Tumor grade			0.925
Well-moderate	565 (66.1)	97 (65.5)
Poor	290 (33.9)	51 (34.5)
Intratumoral fibrosis			0.845
Low	608 (71.0)	106 (71.6)
High	252 (29.5)	42 (28.4)
Follow-up period (months), median (IQR)	43.5 (26.4, 64.8)	50.6 (25.1, 76.9)	0.072
Aggressive recurrence	191 (22.3)	37 (25.0)	0.459

Data are presented as n (%). BCLC: Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; INR: International normalized ratio; ALBI: Albumin-bilirubin; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; LI-RADS: Liver imaging reporting and data system; MVI: Microvascular invasion; VETC: Vessels that encapsulate tumor clusters; IQR: Interquartile range; M: Liver imaging reporting and data system category M.