[Comparison of different clinical staging systems for hepatocellular carcinoma].
OBJECTIVE
To compare the prognostic efficacy of three clinical staging systems: the Chinese system (CS), CLIP scores, and TNM for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).


METHODS
107 cases diagnosed as HCC between January 2000 and October 2003 were retrospectively analyzed. Their clinical stages were decided on the basis of data in CLIP or Chinese staging system when the HCC diagnosis had been confirmed. Fifty-three of the 107 patients underwent surgical resection. The TNM stage was therefore determined according to surgico-pathological results. The survival of those patients with respective to different stages were analyzed and compared using Kaplan-Meier curves and Log rank method.


RESULTS
All the patients were followed up after treatment. The 3-year survival rate in the CS Ia, Ib and CLIP 0 group were 100%. The 1- and 2-year survival rates of CS IIIa group was 68% and 51%, respectively. The 1-year survival in CS IIIb group was only 20.9%. The 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rate in patients with a CLIP score beyond 4 was 57.1%, 49.9%, and 33.5%, respectively. In patients treated with surgical resection, the CS Ia group and TNM I group had a 3-year survival rate of 100%. The 1- and 3-year survival rate in CS IIb were 83.3% and 75.0%, in TNM III group 93.7% and 77.5%.


CONCLUSIONS
The CLIP system may provide accurate prediction of prognosis based on early clinical features. The CS system is comparably efficient in predicting the prognosis of HCC patients, particularly in patients with severe cirrhosis.
Qu
Qiang
Q
Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100032, China. qiangqu@hotmail.com
Rui
Jing-an
JA
Wang
Shao-bin
SB
Chen
Shu-guang
SG
Zhou
Li
L
Han
Kai
K
Wei
Xue
X
Zhang
Ning
N
Zhao
Hai-tao
HT
Cheng
En-cheng
EC
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate