Secondary prevention of recurrence by interferon therapy after ablation therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic hepatitis C patients

Table 3 Studies in which IFN was administered after treatments for HCV-related HCC in Japan

Authors	Treated vs untreated	Treatment	Follow-up (mo)	Recurrence (%)	Survival (%)
Ikeda[21]	20 vs 10	IFN-β	25	10 vs 70
				(P = 0.0004)
Kubo[22]	15 vs 15	IFN-α	36	33 vs 80
				(P = 0.037)
Suou[23]	18 vs 28	IFN-α	60	28 vs 82	0 vs 27
				(P < 0.01)	(P < 0.05)
Shiratori[24]	49 vs 25	IFN-α	84	80 vs 921	53 vs 23

¹IFN therapy did not markedly lower the rate of recurrence the first time, it significantly lowered the rate of recurrence the second and third times.