Prognostic factors for disease-free survival in postoperative patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and construction of a nomogram model.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and has a high risk of invasion and metastasis along with a poor prognosis.

Aim: To investigate the independent predictive markers for disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with HCC and establish a trustworthy nomogram.

Methods: In this study, 445 patients who were hospitalized in The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical College between December 2009 and December 2014 were retrospectively examined. The survival curve was plotted using the Kaplan-Meier method and survival was determined using the log-rank test. To identify the prognostic variables, multivariate Cox regression analyses were carried out. To predict the DFS in patients with HCC, a nomogram was created. C-indices and receiver operator characteristic curves were used to evaluate the nomogram's performance. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was used to evaluate the clinical application value of the nomogram.

Results: Longer DFS was observed in patients with the following characteristics: elderly, I-II stage, and no history of hepatitis B. The calibration curve showed that this nomogram was reliable and had a higher area under the curve value than the tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage. Moreover, the DCA curve revealed that the nomogram had good clinical applicability in predicting 3- and 5-year DFS in HCC patients after surgery.

Conclusion: Age, TNM stage, and history of hepatitis B infection were independent factors for DFS in HCC patients, and a novel nomogram for DFS of HCC patients was created and validated.