Abstract
BACKGROUND Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with radiofrequency ablation (RFA) can improve the survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The purpose was to explore the characteristics of high-risk and low-risk groups of HCC patients receiving combination therapy using a decision tree model. MATERIAL AND METHODS This retrospective cohort study investigated HCC patients treated with a combination of TACE and RFA at our hospital from 2012 to 2018. Decision tree analysis was used to study the 1-year prognosis of patients, and patients were divided into high-risk and low-risk groups. RESULTS We included a total of 142 patients with HCC, 21.83% female and 78.17% male, with the median age of 60 years old. The median follow-up was 13.5 months; 39.44% of patients had progressive disease or death (high-risk group) and 60.56% of patients did not have progressive disease or survival (low-risk group). The area under the curve (AUC) of the decision tree model was 0.846. There were significant differences in sex (P=0.003), age (P=0.038), tumor number (P=0.043), number of RFAs in the first treatment cycle (P.