Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Jan 15, 2020; 12(1): 92-100
Published online Jan 15, 2020. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v12.i1.92
Simultaneous transarterial chemoembolization and radiofrequency ablation for large hepatocellular carcinoma
Feng Duan, Yan-Hua Bai, Li Cui, Xiao-Hui Li, Jie-Yu Yan, Mao-Qiang Wang
Feng Duan, Yan-Hua Bai, Li Cui, Xiao-Hui Li, Jie-Yu Yan, Mao-Qiang Wang, Department of Interventional Radiology, General Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: Duan F and Wang MQ designed research; Duan F, Li XH, Yan JY, Wang MQ performed clinical research; Bai YH and Cui L analyzed data; Duan F and Cui L wrote the paper, all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the General Hospital of People’s Liberation Army Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous data.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest related to this article.
Data sharing statement: No additional unpublished data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mao-Qiang Wang, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Interventional Radiology, General Hospital of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, No. 28 Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. wangmq@vip.sina.com
Received: September 5, 2019
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
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

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.

Research motivation

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.

Research objectives

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.

Research methods

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.

Research results

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.

Research conclusions

These preliminary data show that simultaneous TACE and RFA are safe and effective for large HCC.

Research perspectives

With the simultaneous combination of TACE and RFA, it is expected to bring us a better treatment for large HCC.