An Intention-to-Treat Competing-Risk Model for Candidates with Hepatocellular Cancer Awaiting Liver Transplantation

Background: Since the introduction of the Milan Criteria (MC), all systems, which describe post-transplant prognosis of patients with hepatocellular cancer (HCC), are exclusively based on characteristics available at surgery, and neglect the intention-to-treat principles. This study, based on a large international HCC patient cohort, aimed to develop comprehensive intention-to-treat models through a competing-risk analysis. We used data available at first referral to predict the risk of delisting and HCC-related death after liver transplantation (LT).   Methods: Twelve centres in the United States, Europe and Asia created a Derivation Set (n=2,318) and an external Validation Set (n=773) of …