Early and very early hepatocellular carcinoma: when and how much do staging and choice of treatment really matter? A multi-center study

Table 4 Median survival (months) in the 145 patients with "early" HCC of the internal validation analysis according to the type of treatment.

Type of treatment	N	Median survival (months)	CI 95%
OLTx	5	79	66.211	91.556
RESECTION	17	45	34,327	53,254
RFTA	46	45	40.394	51.247
PEI	16	37	14.384	59.616
TACE	41	44	34.518	53.482
PEI + TACE	10	36	32.006	39.994
BSC	10	12	9.078	14.922
Total	145	45	40.708	49.292

OLTx: orthotopic liver transplantation; RFTA: radiofrequency-mediated thermal ablation; PEI: percutaneous ethanol injection; TACE: transcatheter arterial chemoembolization; BSC: best supportive care.
The difference in survival among treatment groups is statistically significant (p = 0,003). In the COX multivariate analysis however only age and Child-Pugh class (p = 0.025 and p = 0.011, respectively) were selected as independent predictors of survival.

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