Meta-analysis of transarterial chemoembolization combined with cryoablation vs transarterial chemoembolization alone for ≥ 5 cm hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Characteristics of every trial included in the meta-analysis

Ref.	Country	Design	Inclusion criteria	Intervention	Sample size (n)	Sex (male/female)	Mean age (yr)	Tumor size (cm)	Child-Pugh (A/B)	BCLC (B/C)
Cui et al[5], 2018	China	Retrospective cohort study	HCC diagnosed by clinical history, imaging and laboratory examinations	TACE + CRA	56	49/7	50.5 ± 11.3	≥ 5	52/4	-
				TACE	54	49/5	52.7 ± 10.4	≥ 5	50/4	-
Wen and Lin[10], 2018	China	Retrospective cohort study	HCC diagnosed by clinical history, imaging and laboratory examinations	TACE + CRA	43	35/8	54. 8 ± 10. 2	≥ 5	37/6	-
				TACE	43	37/6	53. 2 ± 12. 3	≥ 5	35/8	-
Qiu et al[7], 2015	China	Retrospective cohort study	HCC diagnosed by clinical history, imaging and laboratory examinations	TACE + CRA	44	28/16	51.0 ± 26.1	15.87 ± 4.53	29/15	-
				TACE	41	30/11	53.0 ± 23.6	14.92 ± 3.97	27/14	-
Luo et al[8], 2021	China	Retrospective cohort study	HCC diagnosed by clinical history, imaging and laboratory examinations	TACE + CRA	44	34/10	50.3 ± 7.4	15.5 ± 4.2	16/28	18/26
				TACE	48	36/12	51.8 ± 8.6	14.9 ± 4.3	18/30	19/29
Li et al[9], 2017	China	Retrospective cohort study	HCC diagnosed by clinical history, imaging and laboratory examinations	TACE + CRA	40	-	48.7 ± 6.3	8.4 ± 3.5	-	-
				TACE	40	-			-	-
Huang et al[6], 2016	China	Retrospective cohort study	HCC diagnosed by clinical history, imaging and laboratory examinations	TACE + CRA	58	51/7	52	> 5	54/4	27/31
				TACE	64	59/5		> 5	59/5	23/41

HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; TACE: Transarterial chemoembolization; CRA: Cryoablation.