The median survival time was 26.2 m (95% CI: 24.08–28.32) and the 1-year PFS rate was 52.3% in whole study population. Cox multivariate regression showed smoking history, tumor number ≥ 2, tumor size ≥ 5 cm, portal vein tumor thrombus, WBC, NLR, γ-GGT, ALP, and AFP ≥ 400 ng/mL were risk factors for 1-year progression-free survival, while albumin and CD4 T cell counts were protective factors in HCC patients. A prediction model for 1-year PFS was constructed (
https://lixuan.me/annmodel/myg-v3/). The ANNs model’s ability to predict 1-year PFS had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.866 (95% CI 0.848–0.884) in HCC patients, which was higher than predicted by TNM, BCLC, Okuda, CLIP, CUPI, JIS, and ALBI scores (
p < 0.0001). In addition, the ANNs model could also estimate the probability of 1-year OS and presented a higher AUROC value, 0.877 (95% CI 0.858–0.895), than those other models. All patients were divided into high-, medium-, and low-risk groups, according to the ANNs model scores. Compared with the hazard ratios (HRs) of PFS and OS in low-risk group, those in the high-risk group were 26.42 (95% CI 18.74–37.25;
p < 0.0001) and 11.26 (95% CI 9.11–13.93;
p < 0.0001), respectively.