Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the validity of staging systems, as well as to identify the staging system with the best prognostic value, in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients treated with radiotherapy.
Methods and materials: From 1992 to 2003, a total of 305 patients undergoing radiotherapy for HCC were evaluated retrospectively. All patients were classified before radiation therapy by the following systems: tumor-node-metastasis (TNM), Okuda, Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP), and Japan Integrated Staging (JIS) score. Cumulative survival rates were obtained using the Kaplan-Meier method, and were statistically compared using the log-rank test.
Results: Median survival time was 11 months. The 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-year survival rates were 45.1%, 24.5%, 14.7%, 10.3%, and 6.4%, respectively. Significant differences in survival were observed between all TNM stages, between CLIP scores 2, 3 and 5, 6, as well as between JIS scores 1, 2, and 2, 3.
Conclusions: Among the systems studied, the TNM staging approach appeared to be the best predictor of prognosis. Staging systems that reflect liver disease status (Okuda stage, CLIP, and JIS score) showed limitations in stratifying patients undergoing radiotherapy into different prognostic groups.