Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Aug 28, 2022; 10(4): 220-237
Published online Aug 28, 2022. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v10.i4.220
Outcomes of microwave versus radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Myo Jin Tang, Guy D Eslick, John S Lubel, Ammar Majeed, Avik Majumdar, William Kemp, Stuart K Roberts
Myo Jin Tang, John S Lubel, Ammar Majeed, William Kemp, Stuart K Roberts, Department of Gastroenterology, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne 3004, Victoria, Australia
Myo Jin Tang, Monash Medical School, Monash University, Melbourne 3004, Victoria, Australia
Guy D Eslick, Department of Statistics, Clued Pty Ltd, Sydney 2006, New South Wales, Australia
John S Lubel, Ammar Majeed, William Kemp, Stuart K Roberts, Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne 3004, Victoria, Australia
Avik Majumdar, Department of Gastroenterology, Austin Hospital, Heidelberg 3084, Victoria, Australia
Avik Majumdar, Department of Medicine, Austin Campus, University of Medicine, Melbourne 3084, Victoria, Australia
Author contributions: Tang MJ performed the systematic review, acquisition and interpretation of the data, drafting the article, and final approval; Eslick GD performed the statistical analysis and interpretation of the data, drafting the article, and final approval; Lubel JS performed the systematic review, acquisition and interpretation of the data, drafting the article, and final approval; Majeed A performed interpretation of the data, review of the article, and final approval; Majumdar A contributed to the study design, interpretation of the data, review of the article, and final approval; Kemp W contributed to study concept and design, interpretation of the data, drafting and review of the article, and final approval; Roberts SK contributed to study concept and design, interpretation of the data, drafting and review of the article, and final approval.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 checklist.
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: Stuart K Roberts, FAASLD, AGAF, FRACP, MBBS, MD, Adjunct Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Alfred Hospital, 99 Commercial Rd, Melbourne 3004, Victoria, Australia. s.roberts@alfred.org.au
Received: April 24, 2022
Peer-review started: April 24, 2022
First decision: June 19, 2022
Revised: July 1, 2022
Accepted: August 10, 2022
Article in press: August 10, 2022
Published online: August 28, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: Studies to date comparing outcomes of microwave ablation with radiofrequency ablation have yielded conflicting results, with no clear superiority of one technique over the other. To our knowledge, this is the most comprehensive study on this topic. A large cohort of 6719 patients were examined, enabling us to identify outliers and provide results with a smaller margin of error. The primary outcomes of this study were complete ablation, local recurrence rate, overall and local recurrence free survival and safety.