Published online Jan 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i1.92
Peer-review started: September 5, 2019
First decision: October 18, 2019
Revised: October 25, 2019
Accepted: December 6, 2019
Article in press: December 6, 2019
Published online: January 15, 2020
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common cancer and a leading cause of tumor-related death. Patients who have large HCC (≥ 8 cm) are at advanced stages and have poor prognosis. Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) and radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is commonly used for patients with large HCC, however, both treatments has their own limitation. Recently study showed that combination of TACE and RFA may improve therapeutic efficacy, but how to combine these two treatment modalities is still a controversial topic.
The combination of TACE and RFA has a synergistic effect on HCC inactivation; however, most treatments are generally launched separately in practice, the effects of TACE or RFA alone are not synergistic very well. Therefore, evaluating the effect of the simultaneous combined treatment is necessary.
In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy and safety of simultaneous combined TACE and RFA for large HCC, to figure out how to combine these two treatment modalities.
A retrospective study was conducted. From 2010 to 2013, 46 consecutive patients with large HCC were treated with simultaneous TACE and RFA. Thirty-five of 46 patients had a single tumor. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed at 2 years and 3 years, respectively.
Forty-six patients treated by simultaneous TACE and RFA had no significant complications and treatment was successful. After 3 years, median PFS and OS were 10.21 ± 1.58 and 26.44 ± 2.26 mo, retrospectively. The survival rate was 67.5% after 2 years and 55.67% after 3 years.
These preliminary data show that simultaneous TACE and RFA are safe and effective for large HCC.
With the simultaneous combination of TACE and RFA, it is expected to bring us a better treatment for large HCC.