International comparison of treatment outcomes based on staging systems.
Treatment outcomes were compared among several countries based on different staging systems. Data were collected from published data. Treatment outcomes based on Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) scores 0-3 were best in Japan when compared among several countries. Furthermore, treatment outcomes in Japan based on Japan Integrated Staging (JIS) scores 0-3 were much better than in the USA. However, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging was not useful forinternational comparison, suggesting that BCLC staging is not helpful for prognostic staging but for treatment allocation staging. This is an extremely important point, which should be kept in mind.
Kudo
Masatoshi
M
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.