Characteristics of patients with HCC overall and by adherent (every 6 months) versus non-adherent status
| Characteristics | HCC diagnosis during follow-up (n=228) | HCC diagnosis and adherent (n=151) | HCC diagnosis and non-adherent (n=77) | P values |
| AFP >1000 ng/mL at HCC diagnosis | 10.1% | 5.8% | 19.4% | 0.003 |
| Median tumour size (cm) | 2.6 (1.7–4.4) | 2.3 (1.5–4) | 3.3 (2.1–5.5) | 0.002 |
| BCLC stage 0 or A | 60.8% | 70.4% | 38.7% | 0.003 |
| Milan criteria for liver transplants* | 67.1% | 73.2% | 54.8% | 0.006 |
| UCSF criteria for liver transplants† | 81.7% | 87.9% | 68.7% | 0.001 |
| Received OLT, surgical resection or RFA | 37.1% | 43.6% | 24.0% | 0.005 |
| 5-year cumulative survival | 33.6% (95% CI 23.6% to 43.9%) | 54.7% (95% CI 40.5% to 66.9%) | 6.5% (95% CI 1.3% to 18.0%) | <0.00001 |
*Milan criteria: solitary tumour ≤5 cm, or three or fewer lesions none >3 cm.27
†UCSF criteria: solitary tumour ≤6.5 cm, or three or fewer nodules with the largest lesion ≤4.5 cm and total tumour diameter ≤8 cm, without gross vascular invasion.28
AFP, alpha-fetoprotein; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; BCLC, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer; UCSF, University of California, San Francisco; OLT, orthotopic liver transplantation; RFA, radiofrequency ablation.