Meta-analysis of radiofrequency ablation in combination with transarterial chemoembolization for hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the trials included in the meta-analysis (mean ± SD)

Ref.	Country	Design	Treatment	No. of patients	Age (yr)	Sex (male/female)	Tumor size (cm)	Child-Pugh class (A/B/C)
Peng et al[14]	China	RCT	TACE + RFA	69	57.5 ± 10.0	60/9	≤ 5.01	60/9/0
			RFA	70	55.1 ± 9.5	55/15	-	59/11/0
Cheng et al[15]	China	RCT	TACE + RFA	96	≤ 751	NA	3 < TS ≤ 7.51	NA
			RFA	100	-	-	-	NA
Yang et al[16]	China	RCT	TACE + RFA	24	59.1 ± 11.4	18/6	6.6 ± 0.6	NA
			RFA	12	61.0 ± 10.4	8/4	5.2 ± 0.4	NA
Shibata et al[18]	Japan	RCT	TACE + RFA	46	67.2 ± 8.9	31/15	1.7 ± 0.6	32/14/0
			RFA	43	69.8 ± 8.0	33/10	1.6 ± 0.5	33/10/0
Morimoto et al[20]	Japan	RCT	TACE + RFA	19	70 (57-78)	15/4	3.6 ± 0.7	12/7/0
			RFA	18	73 (48-84)	12/6	3.7 ± 0.6	16/2/0
Kang et al[22]	China	RCT	TACE + RFA	19	52.2	14/5	6.7 ± 1.1	12/7/0
			RFA	18	50.7	14/4	6.2 ± 1.2	12/6/0
Shen et al[23]	China	RCT	TACE + RFA	18	52.7 (20-72)	5/13	5.6 (2.2-15.8)	4/14/0
			RFA	16	56.1 (36-75)	3/13	5.0 (2.3-12.3)	6/10/0
Zhang et al[24]	China	RCT	TACE + RFA	15	57.8 (39-72)	12/3	4.6 (2.3-7.1)	NA
			RFA	15	61.8 (38-78)	13/2	4.1 (2.4-6.0)	NA

¹Total data of relative study. RCT: Randomized controlled trial; NA: Not applicable; TS: Tumor size; RFA: Radiofrequency ablation; TACE: Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization.