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Abstract: Objective To investigate the predictive value of Child-Turcotte-Pugh (CTP)
score combined with Royal Free Hospital-Nutritional Prioritization Tool (RFH-NPT) and
controlling nutritional status (CONUT) score for the 6-month prognosis of patients with liver
cirrhosis and primary liver cancer after transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE).
Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 135 patients with
liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer who received TACE treatment in Huai’an Fourth
People’s Hospital from January 2021 to June 2024. Data including lymphocyte count, total
bilirubin (TBil), albumin (Alb), plasma prothrombin time (PT) and total cholesterol (TC)
of the patients were collected before TACE and 3 days after surgery. Preoperative CTP
score and albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score were calculated to assess the liver function of the
patients, and nutritional assessment was conducted based on RFH-NPT score and CONUT
score. According to the survival status at 6 months after TACE, the patients were divided into
survival group (104 cases) and death group (31 cases). Cox proportional hazards regression
was used to analyze the independent risk factors for the death of the patients, and the receiver
operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to evaluate the predictive performance of
the CTP, RFH-NPT and CONUT scoring models. Results Unintentional weight loss within
3 months before surgery (HR = 1.75, 95%CI: 1.02~3.00, P = 0.04), over 50% reduction
in food intake 5 days before surgery (HR = 3.44, 95%CI: 1.41~8.36, P = 0.01), CTP
score > 6 (HR = 3.21, 95%CI: 1.32~7.83, P = 0.01), RFH-NPT score > 0 (HR = 4.84,
95%CI: 2.17~10.79, P < 0.001) and CONUT score > 2 (HR = 3.50, 95%CI: 1.34~9.16,
P = 0.01) were independent risk factors for death in patients with liver cirrhosis and primary
liver cancer 6 months after TACE. The area under the ROC curve of the CTP score, RFH
NPT score and CONUT score models for predicting 6-month mortality in patients with liver
cirrhosis and primary liver cancer after TACE was 0.77, 0.73 and 0.79, respectively. The
areas under the ROC curve of CTP + RFH-NPT and CTP + CONUT were 0.82 and 0.87,
respectively, both higher than those of the corresponding single CTP, RFH-NPT and CONUT
scoring models, and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). There was no
statistically significant difference in the area under the ROC curve between the two combined
scoring models (z = 1.10, P = 0.27). Conclusions CTP, RFH-NPT and CONUT score were
independent risk factors affecting the prognosis of patients with liver cirrhosis and primary
liver cancer after TACE. Both CTP + RFH-NPT and CTP + CONUT could effectively predict
the short-term mortality risk of patients with liver cirrhosis and primary liver cancer after
TACE.
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