The time to diagnosis of HCC was calculated from the date of randomisation to the date of occurrence of HCC.
Disease free interval (DFI) was measured from the date of the primary diagnosis until the first recurrence of cancer, time to progression (TTP) from the date of randomisation till disease progression and overall survival (OS) from the date of randomisation till death.
Although MESS was a randomised trial, in this analysis we measured time to event from the date of the first seizure, occurring before study entry, referred to as the index seizure, and not the date of randomisation.
The OS from randomisation was calculated from the date of randomisation to the date of death from any cause or censored at the last follow-up.
Overall survival (OS) from randomisation was calculated from the date of randomisation into the study to the date of death from any cause.
We collected data going back 12 months from the date of randomisation (baseline), and then again going back 12 months from 372 days after randomisation, allowing seven days after randomisation for the intervention to begin.
Overall survival and FFS were calculated for all randomised patients from the date of randomisation to the date of death or time to progression, respectively.
This trial had a 2 × 2 factorial design and the primary end point for both randomisations was failure-free survival (FFS) defined as the time from the date of randomisation to the date of progression or death from disease, including non-responders, or death from treatment toxicity.
Although follow-up in the trials was from the date of randomisation, not from the date of diagnosis, as in population survival studies, the median difference between diagnosis and randomisation was just 25 days.
Survival time was measured from the date of randomisation.
Survival was calculated from the date of randomisation to the date of death from any cause.
