Kwon Y, Park YM, Choi BK, et al. - Researchers studied big data, using Cox proportional hazards model, to predict survival time of Korean patients suffering from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). They analyzed big data of the patients who received treatment for HCC from 2008 to 2015. Overall 10,742 HCC cases were split into two categories, with Group I (3021 patients) corroborated on biopsy and Group II (5563 patients) diagnosed as HCC as per HCC diagnostic criteria as outlined in Korean Liver Cancer Association guidelines. Statistically significant difference in survival time was observed between the two groups. Recurrence was only included in intrahepatic cases, and estimated rates were 21.2 and 19.8% while the durations from the first treatment to recurrence were 15.57 and 14.19 months, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, the following factors were included: age, diabetes, BMI, platelet, alpha-fetoprotein, histologic tumor maximum size, imaging T stage, recurrence presence, and span of recurrence. Findings indicate that prediction of recurrence rate and survival time is enabled by nationwide, multicenter big data. This can offer the basis for treatment response to construct a predictive program.