Inflammation–nutrition score predicts prognosis of patients with resectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Background Various inflammation-based prognostic scores have been associated with poor survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Methods Data were collected retrospectively from 674 HCC patients who underwent curative resection. The correlation between INS (inflammation–nutrition score), BCLC (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer) stage and inflammatory indices and overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) was examined. Results An elevated INS was associated with both tumor and host clinical characteristics. The combination of INS and BCLC stage stratifies OS and DFS from 80% and 65% (INS = 0, stage A) to 0% (INS = 2, stage C). Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that the INS was an independent predictor for OS and DFS, and was superior to inflammation-based scores. In addition, INS was demonstrated to be a prognostic factor for patients with early stage and had a higher AUC value in comparison with inflammation scores. Conclusion This study demonstrates that the INS is an independent marker of poor prognosis in patients with resectable HCC, especially for those with early stage, and it provides complimentary prognostic information to BCLC stage, and may aid in treatment strategy.