Abstract

There are several worldwide prognostic staging systems for hepatocellular carinoma (HCC) since Okuda staging system was proposed in 1985. However, there is no consensus which staging system is best in predicting the survival of patients with HCC. In this review, the author investigated the value and the usefulness of known prognostic systems using the literatures. Comparative analysis was taken with focused on 1) the status of validation (internal and/or external validation), 2) the homogeneity within classification groups (treatment, survival), 3) the adequacy of study design (prospective or retrospective, single center or multi-center, and number of patients), 4) the adequacy of statistical method and 5) the concordance of between predicted and observed outcomes between all staging systems. In overall, the CLIP, BCLC and JIS staging systems provided the good stratification of patients with HCC. Although these scoring system have been well validated by many authors, they have some problems and limitations when applied to individual HCC patients, We should try to find more simple and better discriminatory prognostic scoring systems in the future

• Keywords: Prognostic staging system;HCC;Comparative analysis