Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2022; 10(33): 12156-12163
Published online Nov 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i33.12156
Transarterial chemoembolization combined with radiofrequency ablation in the treatment of large hepatocellular carcinoma with stage C
Sha-Sha Sun, Wen-Dong Li, Jing-Long Chen
Sha-Sha Sun, Wen-Dong Li, Jing-Long Chen, Department of Oncology, Capital Medical University Affiliated Beijing Ditan Hospital, Beijing 100015, China
Author contributions: Sun SS, Li WD and Chen JL design the experiment, collected the data; Li WD and Chen JL analysed data; Sun SS wrote and revised the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by Beijing Ditan Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University Institutional Review Board (Approval No. 013-03).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jing-Long Chen, MS, Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, Capital Medical University Affiliated Beijing Ditan Hospital, No. 8 Jingshun East Street, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, China. hhh540027@126.com
Received: August 13, 2022
Peer-review started: August 13, 2022
First decision: September 23, 2022
Revised: September 29, 2022
Accepted: October 24, 2022
Article in press: October 24, 2022
Published online: November 26, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

The combination therapy of transarterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation (TACE-RFA) shows promising efficacy in large hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Data on the clinical efficacy and safety of TACE-RFA for large HCC with barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) stage C are lacking in China.

AIM

To determine the safety and efficacy of TACE-RFA for large, advanced HCC.

METHODS

Patients of HCC with BCLC stage C who were treated with TACE-RFA or TACE alone at our institute from August 2008 to January 2017 were retrospectively reviewed. The complications were observed. The associations between overall survival (OS) and treatment method were analysed.

RESULTS

Data were collected from 102 HCC patients. Among them, 64 underwent TACE-RFA and 38 underwent TACE. The combination of TACE and RFA was safe. All complications were controllable. The median OS in the TACE-RFA group was significantly longer than that in the TACE group (8.0 mo vs 4.0 mo, P = 0.000). The 6-, 12- and 24-mo survival rates of the combination group were 68.8%, 34.4%, and 10.9%, respectively, while those of the TACE group were 36.8%, 7.9%, and 0% (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

TACE-RFA has an advantage over TACE alone in improving OS in large HCC patients with BCLC stage C.

Keywords: Large advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, Transarterial chemoembolization, Radiofrequency ablation, Overall survival, Combination therapy

Core Tip: Few reports have focused on the effect of transarterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation (TACE-RFA) in patients with large hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of barcelona clinic liver cancer (BCLC) stage C. Thus, the aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a combined therapy strategy with TACE-RFA in large HCC of BCLC C group. We found that TACE-RFA had an advantage over TACE alone in improving overall survival in large HCC patients with BCLC C.