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HKLC scoring system improved therapy options, survival outcomes in patients with HCC

The Hong Kong Liver Cancer scoring system was effective when recommending treatment for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma compared with the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer system, according to data from a recent study.

Researchers collected data from 3,856 patients enrolled at the Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, (median age, 58 years), to find a more aggressive classifying system than the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC). All included patients had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and were divided into two groups, the BCLC set and the Hong Kong Cancer Liver (HKLC) set, for comparison and evaluation.

Both systems compared data such as patient performance status, Child-Turcotte-Pugh grade, tumor status and other criteria, to determine discriminatory ability and efficacy of treatment recommendation. All patients were cross-tabulated in the test set according to their BCLC and HKLC stages and when they first received treatment.

According to results, the HKLC system had higher ability when determining overall survival times, according to receiver operating characteristic curve values (0.84 vs. 0.8; concordance index, 0.74 vs. 0.7). The HKLC also identified better treatment options for patients, resulting in improved overall survival outcomes compared with the BCLC system.

When stratified by advanced and intermediate disease stages, BCLC-C (48.6% vs. 0%; P<.0001) and BCLC-B (52.1% vs. 18.7%; P<.0001) patients classified as HKLC-II, respectively, had higher rates of 5-year survival probability. For BCLC-C classified patients, radical curative therapies outperformed systemic therapy in improving survival, and radical therapies shower better results than transarterial chemoembolization in the BCLC-B set.

“Overall, our HKLC treatment algorithm yielded better survival outcomes when compared with the BCLC treatment algorithm,” researchers concluded. “This study has established a new prognostic classification scheme, the HKLC staging classification, which may provide better prognostic classification than BCLC staging and may be more effective in identifying patients suitable for more aggressive treatments.”

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.