Albi score predicts overall survival (OS) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with selective internal radiation therapy (SIRT)

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of baseline clinical features and treatment procedure, including liver function measured with albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) formula and dosing methods in HCC patients treated with SIRT.

Material and methods: The study includes 82 consecutive patients with liver-dominant HCC treated with SIRT (⁹⁰Y glass microspheres, TheraSphereTM) between October 2014 and September 2023. Twenty-five patients were treated with standard dosimetry, while for remaining patients, multi-compartment dosimetry was performed using Simplicit90YTM software. Impact of baseline patient's characteristics including presence of portal vein thrombosis (PVT), Child-Pugh score (CP), ALBI score, bilirubin levels, tumor size and prior locoregional liver-directed or systemic treatments was assessed through multivariable Cox proportional hazard model.

Results: Median follow-up after treatment was 40.0 months (15.2-67.9). At univariable analysis, ALBI score and bilirubin levels were found to be independent prognostic factors for survival after SIRT (p = 0.001, respectively); furthermore, at Cox proportional hazards analysis, HR for death of ALBI 2 versus ALBI 1 was 10.54 (95% CI, 1.42-78.19, p = 0.021), while despite not significant, HR in patients with bilirubin levels over 1.1 mg/dl was 2.67 (0.75-9.44, p = 0.118). Conversely, no significant association was found between OS and cirrhosis, tumor size and PVT.

Conclusion: ALBI score demonstrated to impact OS in HCC patients treated with SIRT thus going beyond a simple prediction of treatment-related toxicity. The present results are relevant for the selection of HCC patients for SIRT in a real-world clinical setting.