The PATH score based on pathological grade predicts survival of patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy.

Abstract

e16134 Background: Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) is an emerging and effective therapeutic strategy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We developed a practical prognostic score for patients undergoing HAIC to determine who can benefit from it. Methods: Between 2014 and 2019, 482 treatment-naïve patients with advanced HCC undergoing HAIC were included from two independent treatment departments. Patients were randomly divided into training (n = 337) and validation (n = 145) cohorts. Pathological grade, ALBI grade, and TNM stage were selected and developed a simple score to evaluate HAIC treatment (PATH) by Cox regression model, subsequently confirmed in the validation cohort and compared with other prognostic scores. Results: According to the PATH score, patients were divided into three groups; low-risk (0-1 point), moderate-risk (2-3 points), and high-risk (4-6 points). The median survival in the low-risk group was significantly longer than those in the other two groups (34.9 [95% CI: 25.8-44.0] vs. 13.6 [95% CI: 11.3-15.9] vs. 8.0 [95% CI: 6.8-9.2] months; p <0.001). The PATH score was fairly confirmed in the validation cohort and consistently performed better than other existing models in the training and validation cohorts. Conclusions: PATH score may be a simple and practical tool, which has good discrimination ability to screen HAIC sensitive populations and effectively predict individual survival outcomes. Calculation method of the PATH score.[Table: see text]