<p>Use of a Novel Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Model for Predicting the Progression of Hepatocellular Carcinoma</p>

Abstract

Background: Individuals with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are at risk of tumor recurrence after surgical resection, which affects their survival. The aim of the present study was to establish a model for predicting tumor progression in patients with HCC. Methods: To develop and validate the efficacy of a novel prognostic model, a retrospective cohort with HCC (n = 1005) at Beijing Ditan Hospital was enrolled from January 2008 and June 2017. Furthermore, a prospective cohort (n = 77) was recruited to validate the association between thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and tumor progression in patients with HCC. Results: The model used in predicting the progression of HCC included four variables (namely, Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer [BCLC] stage, presence of portal vein tumor thrombus, alpha-fetoprotein level, and TSH level). The AUROC of the 1-year progressionfree survival (PFS) model was 0.755 and 0.753 in the deriving cohort and validation cohort, respectively, and these values were significantly higher than those of the Child-Pugh score, Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD), tumor-lymph node-metastasis (TNM) staging system, Okuda classification, and CLIP score. A simple assessment using a nomogram showed the 1-year PFS rate of patients with HCC. In the prospective cohort, the KM curve showed that the high TSH level group had a shorter PFS than the low TSH level (p = 0.001). Conclusion: The prognostic model of HCC progression was superior to other well-known classical tumor scoring systems. A high TSH level was correlated to poor outcome, particularly those with advanced HCC.

The Clinical Relevance of Hypothyroidism in Patients with Solid Non-Thyroid Cancer: A Tantalizing Conundrum

“…This model proved superior in predicting progression-free survival (PFS) over conventional tumor scoring systems, such as the Child–Pugh score, Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD), TNM staging system, Okuda classification, and CLIP score. In the prospective cohort used to validate the correlation between TSH levels and tumor progression in patients with HCC, the KM curve indicated a shorter PFS in the high TSH level group compared to the low TSH level group ( p = 0.001) [ 105 ].…”