Fig. 1

Nomograms to calculate the expected survival time, and 3- and 5-year survival probabilities for a patients who attempt to undergo adjuvant TACE and b patients who attempt not to undergo adjuvant TACE. Thus, the difference of the expected values between the two estimates is the expected net survival benefit of adjuvant TACE. Calibration plots of the models for predicting 3-year and 5-year survival for patients with and without adjuvant TACE c in the developing cohort and d in the validation cohort, respectively. e Screenshots of the web-based calculator for individualized estimates of the expected net survival benefit of adjuvant TACE for patients with resected hepatocellular carcinoma. Website: http://www.asapcalculate.top/Cal5_en.html. For example, suppose there is a male patient without portal hypertension (Child–Pugh A) who have underwent curative resection for a single HCC tumor (tumor size: 8.0 cm, without macrovascular invasion but with microvascular invasion). His preoperative AFP level was 718 ug/L (≥ 400 ug/L), and the tumor resection margin was 0.8 cm (< 1 cm). After putting these data into these specific parameters, we can get the expected net survival time benefit of adjuvant TACE was 9.0 months, and the net survival benefits of 3-year and 5-year survival rates are 11.7% and 9.3%, respectively