Table 2.

Staging systems for stratification of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

	TNM (7th ed)	Okuda	CLIP	BCLC	JIS	GRETCH	CUPI	Tokyo
Year introduced	2010	1985	1998	1999	2003	1999	2002	2005
Liver function	No	Bilirubin, albumin, ascites	CTP class	CTP class, portal hypertension	CTP class	Bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase	Bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, ascites	Bilirubin, albumin
Performance status	No	No	No	Yes, ECOG status	No	Yes, Karnofsky		No
Tumour burden	Number of nodules, tumour size, PV invasion, metastasis	Tumour > or <50% of liver	Tumour > or <50% of liver, PV invasion, metastasis	Number of nodules, tumour size, PV invasion, metastasis	TNM stage, define by LCSGJ	PV thrombosis	TNM stage	Number of nodules, tumour size
α-fetoprotein concentration	No	No	Yes, cutoff 400 ng/mL	No	No	Yes, cutoff 25 ng/mL	Yes, cutoff 500 ng/mL	No
Staging categories	I, II, III, IV	Score 0–4; stage I, II, III	0–6	0, A, B, C, D	0–5	Score 0–3 risk groups	Score 0–12; three risk groups	0–8
Other parameters							+/− symptom disease

The Up-to-7 criteria system was not selected since it does not include clinical performance, liver function, or tumour markers. Furthermore, since the system is dependent on microvascular invasion, it is not clinically applicable. TNM=tumour, node, metastasis. CLIP=Cancer of the Liver Italian Program. BCLC=Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer. JIS=Japan Integrated Scoring. GRETCH=Groupe d’Etude et de Traitement du Carcinoma Hepatocellulaire. CUPI=Chinese University Prognostic Index. CTP=Child-Pugh-Turcotte. ECOG=Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. PV=portal vein. LCSGJ=Liver cancer study group of Japan.