Using characteristic importance analysis, we identified the 20 clinical variables that have the greatest impact on ARDS patients, in order of importance: AST, length of hospital stay, SBP, APACHE, ICU admission hours, FiO2, total bilirubin, platelets, OASIS, Charlson score, albumin, ALT, malignant neoplasms, age, BUN, ALP, DBP, SpO2, PaO2/FiO2, and PaO2. Here, ALB is linked to cancer.