Active treatments are a rational approach for hepatocellular carcinoma in elderly patients

Table 1 Basic characteristics

Age (yr)	67.0 (60.0-73.0)1
Gender (male/female)	647/271
HBsAg (-/+/ND)	582/196/140
anti-HCV (-/+/ND)	278/534/106
AIH/PBC/alcohol/NASH/BCS	10/6/85/16/2
Child-Pugh (A/B/C/ND)	704/172/36/6
Size (mm)	28.0 (19.0-45.0)1
Stage (I/II/III/IV)2	163/306/287/162
Therapy (Loco/IVR/Cx/others/BSC)	459/332/78/11/38

¹Median and interquartile range;

²General rules for the clinical and pathological study of primary liver cancer from Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan. ND: Not determined; AIH: Autoimmune hepatitis; PBC: Primary biliary cirrhosis; NASH: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; BCS: Budd-Chiari syndrome; Loco: Logo-regional treatments, including resection, radiofrequency ablation, microwave coagulation and percutaneous ethanol injection; IVR: Interventional radiology including transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, and transarterial oily chemoembolization; Cx: Chemotherapy including hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy, systemic chemotherapy and molecular targeting therapy; Others: Other therapies including stereotactic body radiation, proton beam and liver transplantation; BSC: Best supportive care; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HCV: Hepatitis C virus.

Table 2 Cox regression analysis for survival time

Variable	Significance	HR	95%CI for HR
			Lower	Upper
Age	0.020	1.021	1.003	1.040
Gender	0.652	1.079	0.775	1.503
HBsAg	0.029	1.598	1.051	2.432
anti-HCV	0.036	1.503	1.027	2.198
AFP	0.000	1.314	1.135	1.521
L3	0.288	1.004	0.997	1.012
DCP	0.005	1.216	1.061	1.395
Child-Pugh class
A	0.000
B	0.000	2.307	1.562	3.408
C	0.001	3.373	1.617	7.035
Tumor stage1
I	0.000
II	0.148	1.504	0.865	2.616
III	0.051	1.751	0.997	3.074
IV	0.000	5.715	2.985	10.939
Therapy category
Loco-regional	0.000
IVR	0.000	2.567	1.800	3.661
Chemotherapy	0.000	2.861	1.675	4.889
Others	0.000	6.151	2.505	15.107

¹General rules for the clinical and pathological study of primary liver cancer from Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan. HR: Hazard ratio; AFP:α-fetoprotein; L3: Percentage of fucosylated fraction in AFP; DCP: Des-γ-carboxy prothrombin; Loco-regional: Therapies including resection, radiofrequency ablation, microwave coagulation and percutaneous ethanol injection; IVR: Interventional radiology including transcatheter arterial chemoembolization and transarterial oily chemoembolization; Chemotherapy: Therapies including hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy, systemic chemotherapy and molecular targeting therapy; Others: Other therapies including stereotactic body radiation, proton beam and liver transplantation; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen.

Table 3 Cox regression analysis for percent life expectancy

Variable	Significance	HR	95%CI for HR
			Lower	Upper
Gender	0.072	0.717	0.499	1.030
HBsAg	0.043	1.709	1.018	2.869
anti-HCV	0.043	1.597	1.015	2.511
AFP	0.000	1.348	1.145	1.587
L3	0.421	1.004	0.995	1.012
DCP	0.015	1.243	1.043	1.482
Child-Pugh class
A	0.001
B	0.001	2.144	1.393	3.300
C	0.084	2.375	0.891	6.332
Tumor stage1
I	0.000
II	0.554	1.216	0.637	2.320
III	0.180	1.554	0.816	2.960
IV	0.000	3.879	1.871	8.045
Therapy category
Loco-regional	0.000
IVR	0.000	2.755	1.816	4.179
Chemotherapy	0.000	3.365	1.884	6.010
Others	0.246	3.359	0.435	25.971
Age group
49 years/younger	0.240
50s	0.242	0.598	0.253	1.415
60s	0.107	0.496	0.211	1.164
70s	0.047	0.436	0.192	0.990
80 years/older	0.041	0.348	0.126	0.958

¹General rules for the clinical and pathological study of primary liver cancer from Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan; HR: Hazard ratio; AFP:α-fetoprotein; L3: Percentage of fucosylated fraction in AFP; DCP: Des-γ-carboxy prothrombin; Loco-regional: Therapies including resection, radiofrequency ablation, microwave coagulation and percutaneous ethanol injection; IVR: Interventional radiology including transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, and transarterial oily chemoembolization; Chemotherapy: Therapies including hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy, systemic chemotherapy and molecular targeting therapy; Others: Other therapies including stereotactic body radiation, proton beam and liver transplantation; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen.