Data mining reveals complex interactions of risk factors and clinical feature profiling associated with the staging of non-hepatitis B virus/non-hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma.

AIM

Non-hepatitis B virus/non-hepatitis C virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma (NBNC-HCC) is often detected at an advanced stage, and the pathology associated with the staging of NBNC-HCC remains unclear. Data mining is a set of statistical techniques which uncovers interactions and meaningful patterns of factors from a large data collection. The aims of this study were to reveal complex interactions of the risk factors and clinical feature profiling associated with the staging of NBNC-HCC using data mining techniques.

METHODS

A database was created from 663 patients with NBNC-HCC at 20 institutions. The Milan criteria were used as staging of HCC. Complex associations of variables and clinical feature profiling with the Milan criteria were analyzed by graphical modeling and decision tree algorithm methods, respectively.

RESULTS

Graphical modeling identified six factors independently associated with the Milan criteria: diagnostic year of HCC; diagnosis of liver cirrhosis; serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST); alanine aminotransferase (ALT); α-fetoprotein (AFP); and des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP) levels. The decision trees were created with five variables to classify six groups of patients. Sixty-nine percent of the patients were within the Milan criteria, when patients showed an AFP level of 200 ng/mL or less, diagnosis of liver cirrhosis and an AST level of less than 93 IU/mL. On the other hand, 18% of the patients were within the Milan criteria, when patients showed an AFP level of more than 200 ng/mL and ALT level of 20 IU/mL or more.

CONCLUSION

Data mining disclosed complex interactions of the risk factors and clinical feature profiling associated with the staging of NBNC-HCC.