Survival Analysis of Single Large (>5 cm) Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients: BCLC A versus B

Single large (>5 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is classified as Barcelona Liver Clinic (BCLC) stage early stage (A). Yet, controversies exist whether single large HCC can be considered as early stage. We have analyzed long-term outcome to see which stage is appropriate for these patients.. A3 + B1) was compared based on c-index and Akaike information criterion (AIC). = 0.258). For A3, surgical resection showed superior OS over transarterial chemoembolization. Survival prediction was superior in subgrouping 2 (AIC 5727.2; c-index 0.652) than subgrouping 1 (AIC 5766.3; c-index 0.619) even after inverse probability weighting.This large scale long-term follow-up data shows that single large tumor should be considered as intermediate stage in terms of prognosis. However, in terms of treatment, resection might be the first line treatment option