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This study analyzed the natural history and prognostic factors of patients with nonsurgical hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Twenty variables from 102 cirrhotic patients with HCC who were not treated within prospective randomized controlled trials (RCT) were investigated through uni–and multivariate analyses. None of them was suitable for radical therapies (surgical resection, liver transplantation, or ethanol injection) or presented end–stage disease as reflected by an Okuda stage 3 or a Performance Status≥ 3. Sixty–five patients were Child–Pugh A, 34 were B, and 3 were C. Most of them exhibited a preserved Performance Status Test (PST)(0= 56; 1= 38; 2= 8). Tumor was solitary in 26 (≤ 5 cm in 16) and multinodular/massive in 76. After a median follow–up of 17 months, 79 patients died, the 1–, 2–, and 3–year survival being 54%, 40%, and 28%. The multivariate study identified PST (P=. 01), constitutional …