An AST increase >25% was associated with a worse median OS (increase versus no increase: 6.4 versus 20.2 months [95% CI: 4.8-8.0 versus 15.9-24.6 months], P < 0.001). Similarly, an increase of CP score of 1 or more points after the first TACE was significantly associated
with a poor median OS (Table 2). Given that the time of AST and Child-Pugh score assessment was heterogeneous (13-90 days after IWR-1 chemical structure TACE 1), we also evaluated whether time of assessment had any influence on our results. For this purpose, we formed two groups based on the median of the time interval between TACE 1 and TACE 2 and analyzed the distribution of the variable AST increase >25% and Child-Pugh increase with respect to the median time between TACE 1 and TACE 2. As shown in Supporting Table 1, there was no accumulation of AST increase
>25% or Child-Pugh increase at earlier timepoints of assessment. Finally, we evaluated, whether the prognostic significance of AST increase >25% and Child-Pugh increase differed depending on the time of their assessment. As shown in Supporting Table 2, the time of assessment had no influence on the prognostic significance of both variables. According to the univariate analysis (Table 2), the significant parameters Child-Pugh stage pre-TACE 2, tumor extent (pre-TACE 2, CRP levels (pre-TACE 2), AFP response, radiologic response, AST increase >25%, and Child-Pugh Ibrutinib price score increase were entered into a Cox regression analysis. After the stepwise removal of variables which were not significant (step: 1: AFP response, P = 0.42; step 2: Child-Pugh stage, P = 0.15; step 3: tumor extent, P = 0.27; step 4: CRP, P = 0.12) only radiologic tumor response, AST
increase of >25%, and Child-Pugh selleck chemicals llc score increase of 1 point or ≥2 points (Table 3) remained significant predictors of OS. The calculated regression coefficients (B-values) were multiplied times 2 and rounded in order to facilitate the calculation of the ART score (Table 3). We next calculated the ART score for all patients for whom all three parameters were available (training cohort: n = 97, validation cohort: n = 107). In the training cohort, the ART score identified two subgroups with distinct prognosis (Fig. 3A). Patients with an ART score of 0-1.5 points had a median OS of 23.7 months (95% CI, 16.2-32.2 months). In contrast, patients with an ART score ≥2.5 points had a median OS of 6.6 months (95% CI, 4.5-8.8 months; P < 0.001) (Fig. 3B). The ART score performed equally well in all three transarterial techniques used in the training cohort (Fig. 3C-E). Of patients in the training cohort with an ART score of 0-1.5 points (n = 60), 53 (88%) received more than 2 TACE sessions, while of patients with an ART score ≥2.5 points (n = 37), 24 (65%) received more than 2 TACE sessions (P = 0.006, chi-squared test).