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Assessment of Liver Function: Focus on the ALBI Score

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Radiation Therapy for Liver Tumors

Abstract

Assessment of underlying liver function influences all aspects of the management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from diagnosis and treatment to prognosis. Despite extensive and well-recognised limitations, the Child-Pugh score (CPS) is the most widely used grading system. Patients with CPS ā€˜Aā€™ are optimal for liver-directed therapy and CP ā€˜Cā€™ are usually excluded for all therapies apart from liver transplantation. The MELD is a statistically developed and widely validated system that is used mainly for prioritisation of candidates for liver transplantation. The recently developed ALBI score has many advantages over the CPS, being simple, evidence-based, objective and extensively validated, but it remains to be seen if ALBI will replace the CPS.

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Correspondence to Philip J. Johnson MD, FRCP .

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Johnson, P.J., Khan, H., Berhane, S. (2017). Assessment of Liver Function: Focus on the ALBI Score. In: Meyer, J., Schefter, T. (eds) Radiation Therapy for Liver Tumors. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54531-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54531-8_3

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