Letters To The Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. May 28, 2017; 9(15): 711-714
Published online May 28, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i15.711
Usefulness of the MESH score in a European hepatocellular carcinoma cohort
Xavier Adhoute, Guillaume Pénaranda, Jean-Luc Raoul, Marc Bourlière
Xavier Adhoute, Marc Bourlière, Department of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Hôpital Saint-Joseph Marseille, 13008 Paris, France
Guillaume Pénaranda, AlphaBio Laboratory Marseille, 13008 Paris, France
Jean-Luc Raoul, Department of Hepato-Gastroenterology and Digestive Oncology, Institut Paoli-Calmette Marseille, 13008 Paris, France
Author contributions: Adhoute X, Raoul JL and Bourlière M are in charge of the patients; Bourlière M, Raoul JL and Adhoute X collected the data; Pénaranda G proceeded to statistical analysis; Adhoute X, Bourlière M, Raoul JL and Pénaranda G write the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Xavier Adhoute, Department of Hepato-Gastroenterology, Hôpital Saint-Joseph, 26 Bd de Louvain Marseille, 13008 Paris, France. adhoute.xavier@neuf.fr
Received: January 29, 2017
Peer-review started: February 9, 2017
First decision: March 6, 2017
Revised: March 15, 2017
Accepted: April 23, 2017
Article in press: April 24, 2017
Published online: May 28, 2017
Processing time: 109 Days and 13.3 Hours
Abstract

The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer classification is the most widely - used hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) staging system because it is simple, precise and linked to a treatment algorithm based on randomized studies. But each group includes a broad spectrum of tumors, with limited therapeutic options, particularly for intermediate and advanced stages. Consequently, different additional scoring systems have been proposed to refine the prognosis and/or to improve the management. But until now, there is no consensus. Liu et al proposes a new scoring system, based on a large HCC cohort, with patients at different stages, treated using diverse modalities. This score includes six parameters used in current practice. It is simple to calculate, reliable, with an ability to predict survival superior to other systems, which also works with our European HCC cohort. The MESH score may be especially useful to differentiate subgroups with different prognosis for each treatment modality.

Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; Scoring system; MESH; NIACE

Core tip: The Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer system has become the reference classification for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). But it has been criticized; each group includes a broad spectrum of tumors with limited therapeutic options. For this reason, different additional scoring systems have been proposed to improve the management. Liu et al proposes the MESH score, based on a large HCC cohort. It includes six parameters used in current practice, and in a European HCC cohort, this new score appears to be simple, reliable and useful to differentiate subgroups with different prognosis for each treatment modality.