title: Novel Pretreatment Scoring Incorporating C-reactive Protein to Predict Overall Survival in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma with Sorafenib Treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to build a prediction score of prognosis for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after sorafenib treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 165 patients with advanced HCC who were treated with sorafenib were analyzed. Readily available baseline factors were used to establish a scoring system for the prediction of survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median survival time (MST) was 14.2 months. The independent prognostic factors were C-reactive protein (CRP) <1.0 mg/dL [hazard ratio (HR) =0.51], albumin >3.5 g/dL (HR =0.55), alpha-fetoprotein <200 ng/mL (HR =0.45), and a lack of major vascular invasion (HR =0.39). Each of these factors had a score of 1, and after classifying the patients into five groups, the total scores ranged from 0 to 4. Higher scores were linked to significantly longer survival (p<0.0001). Twenty-nine patients (17.6%) with a score of 4 had a MST as long as 36.5 months, whereas MST was as short as 2.4 and 3.7 months for seven (4.2%) and 22 (13.3%) patients with scores of 0 and 1, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A novel prognostic scoring system, which includes the CRP level, has the ability to stratify the prognosis of patients with advanced stage HCC after treatment with sorafenib.
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Nakanishi
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Masayuki
authors: M
authors: Kurosaki
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Kaoru
authors: K
authors: Tsuchiya
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Yutaka
authors: Y
authors: Yasui
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Mayu
authors: M
authors: Higuchi
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Tsubasa
authors: T
authors: Yoshida
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Yasuyuki
authors: Y
authors: Komiyama
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Kenta
authors: K
authors: Takaura
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Tsuguru
authors: T
authors: Hayashi
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Konomi
authors: K
authors: Kuwabara
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Natsuko
authors: N
authors: Nakakuki
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Hitomi
authors: H
authors: Takada
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Masako
authors: M
authors: Ueda
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Nobuharu
authors: N
authors: Tamaki
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Shoko
authors: S
authors: Suzuki
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Itakura
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Yuka
authors: Y
authors: Takahashi
authors: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
authors: Namiki
authors: N
authors: Izumi
keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Prognostic prediction; Systemic chemotherapy