Table 2.
Baseline patient characteristics
| Variables | Training set (n = 540) | Validation set (n = 366) | P value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demographic and history | |||
| Mean age ± SD (y) (range) | 57.2 ± 10.7 (24‐83) | 57.6 ± 10.9 (25‐81) | .764a |
| Sex | .139b | ||
| Male | 424 (78.5) | 302 (82.5) | |
| Female | 116 (21.5) | 64 (17.5) | |
| Mean BMI ± SD (kg/m2) (range) | 22.5 ± 5.2 (21.4‐25.8) | 21.8 ± 6.4 (20.9‐24.3) | .527a |
| Performance status | .898b | ||
| 0 | 513 (95.0) | 347 (94.7) | |
| 1 | 27 (5.0) | 19 (5.3) | |
| Comorbidities | .519b | ||
| Absence | 79 (14.6) | 48 (13.1) | |
| Presence | 461 (85.4) | 318 (86.9) | |
| Etiology | .333b | ||
| HBV | 423 (78.3) | 287 (78.4) | |
| HCV | 48 (8.9) | 42 (11.5) | |
| Alcohol‐induced | 9 (1.7) | 7 (1.9) | |
| Other | 60 (11.1) | 30 (8.2) | |
| Cirrhosis | .484b | ||
| Absence | 50 (9.3) | 29 (7.9) | |
| Presence | 490 (90.7) | 337 (92.1) | |
| CTP grade | .648b | ||
| A | 516 (100) | 352 (97.6) | |
| B | 24 (0) | 14 (2.4) | |
| Median AFP level (ng/mL) (range) | 234.6 (3.2‐1381.2) | 221.9 (4.8‐762.8) | .254a |
| Tumor data | |||
| Mean maximal tumor diameter ± SD (cm) (range) | 2.5 ± 0.9 (0.9‐5.0) | 2.6 ± 1.0 (0.8‐5.0) | .188a |
| No. of tumors | 812 | 578 | .139b |
| Single | 316 (78.8) | 196 (58.8) | |
| Multiple | 224 (21.2) | 170 (41.2) | |
| Abutting major vessel | .445b | ||
| Absence | 79 (39.6) | 47 (40.3) | |
| Presence | 461 (60.4) | 319 (59.7) | |
| Treatment parameter | |||
| Ablation frequency (MHz) | .801b | ||
| 915 | 4 (95.0) | 2 (95.0) | |
| 2450 | 536 (95.0) | 364 (95.0) | |
| Mean No. of antenna ± SD (range) | 1.7 ± 0.6 (1‐2) | 1.6 ± 0.4 (1‐2) | .782a |
| Median No. of insertion (range) | 2.6 (1‐4) | 2.8 (1‐6) | .092a |
| Median ablation time ± SD (minutes) (range) | 9.4 (2.2‐47.7) | 11.2 (3.3‐50.3) | .362a |
| Mean ablation power ± SD (Watts) (range) | 54.8 ± 10.8 (45‐70) | 55.6 ± 9.4 (45‐60) | .712a |
| Ablation sessionsc , d | .578b | ||
| 1 | 656 (80.8) | 460 (81.6) | |
| 2 | 156 (19.2) | 118 (18.4) | |
| Laboratory findings | |||
| Mean albumin level ± SD (g/L) (range) | 35.1 ± 11.3 (16.1‐45.7) | 35.4 ± 10.7 (11.6‐46.4) | .492a |
| Median total bilirubin level (μmol/L) (range) | 19.3 (2.2‐62.9) | 18.4 (3.7‐62.1) | .971a |
| Median ALT (U/L) (range) | 34.2 (8.1‐182.5) | 35.6 (9.6‐212.3) | .681a |
| Median AST (U/L) (range) | 34.9 (12.9‐199.3) | 35.7 (8.8‐187.6) | .219a |
| Median platelet counts (×109) (range) | 115.5 (67.2‐178.2) | 108 (55.3‐166.7) | .562a |
| Mean INR ± SD (range) | 1.13 ± 0.21 (0.87‐1.38) | 1.15 ± 0.32 (0.89‐1.49) | .898a |
| HCC stage | |||
| BCLC stage | .388b | ||
| 0 | 180 (33.3) | 112 (30.6) | |
| A | 360 (66.7) | 254 (60.4) | |
| TNM stage | .139b | ||
| I | 316 (78.8) | 196 (58.8) | |
| II | 224 (21.2) | 170 (41.2) | |
| CS stage | .091b | ||
| Ia | 302 (53.5) | 172 (47.0) | |
| Ib | 220 (38.9) | 169 (46.2) | |
| II | 43 (7.6) | 25 (6.8) | |
| Okuda score | .355b | ||
| I | 172 (31.9) | 106 (29.0) | |
| II | 368 (68.1) | 260 (71.0) | |
| Technique effectivenessc , d | 812/812 (100) | 578/578 (100) | 1.000b |
| Complicationsc | 5/540 (0.9) | 3/366 (0.8) | .867b |
| Follow‐up (y) | .787a | ||
| Median | 30.3 | 27.0 | |
| Range | 0.6‐110.5 | 3.2‐109.3 |
Except where indicated, data are numbers of patients. Data in parentheses are percentages and were calculated by using the total number of patients in each group as the denominator. SD = standard deviation. P < .05 indicated a significant difference.
Abbreviations: AFP:α‐fetoprotein; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; BCLC, barcelona clinic liver cancer; BMI, body mass index; CS, China staging; CTP, Child‐Turcotte‐Pugh; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HCV, hepatitis C virus; INR, international normalized ratio; TNM, tumor‐node‐metastasis.
a
Student's t test.
b
Pearson's χ2 test.
c
Data in parentheses are percentages.
d
Data are the number of treatments.