A pathologic scoring system for predicting postoperative prognosis in patients with ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma

Background The accuracy of pathological factors to predict the prognosis of patients with ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma (rHCC) is unclear. We aimed to develop and validate a novel scoring system based on pathological factors to predict the postoperative survival of patients with rHCC. Method Patients with rHCC who underwent hepatectomy were recruited from three hospitals and allocated to the training (n = 221) and validation (n = 194) cohorts. A new scoring system, namely the MSE (microvascular invasion-satellite foci-Edmondson Steiner) score, was established based on three pathological factors using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses, including microvascular invasion, satellite foci, and differentiation grade. Finally, patients were stratified into three groups based on their risk of prognosis (low, intermediate, or high) according to their MSE score. We also constructed MSE score-based nomograms. The performance of the nomograms was assessed by receiver operating characteristic and calibration curve analyses and validated using the validation cohort. Results Three pathological factors were significantly correlated with overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), three of which were included in the MSE score. The score can clearly stratify rHCC patients after hepatectomy (P < 0.05). And we established nomograms based on the MSE score (MSE score, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage, and alpha-fetoprotein concentration) to predict postoperative OS and RFS in patients with rHCC. The nomograms showed good discrimination, with C-indices over 0.760 for OS and RFS at 1, 3, and 5 years, respectively. The calibration curve showed excellent nomogram calibration, which was also verified in the validation cohort. Conclusion The clinical MSE score were accurate in predicting OS and RFS in patients with rHCC with resectable lesions after hepatectomy.