Study Design and Population
liver cancer
LIVER CANCER, DISEASE
This retrospective cohort study included hospitalized patients with DLC admitted to Liuzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Liuzhou, China) between November 2010 and February 2013. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Liuzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The requirement for informed consent was waived by the committee due to the nature of the retrospective study.The inclusion criteria were: (1) diagnosis of DLC; (2) aged between 18 and 75 years. Considering that some factors may affect the objective interpretation of the data analysis, the exclusion criteria were set as follows: (1) diagnosis with another serious disease outside the liver; (2) recipient of a late stage liver transplantation; (3) diagnosis of liver cancer before treatment; and (4) incomplete data or loss to follow-up. DLC was diagnosed by previous medical history, clinical manifestation, blood and imaging examinations, or liver biopsy.