[Radiofrequency ablation and percutaneous ethanol injection in patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma--a...

The patients were classified according to the Japan Integrated Staging (JIS) score and a comparison examination of the long-term therapeutic response of 149 unresectable hepatocellular carcinomas: 90 of them given percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI), and 59 of them given radiofrequency ablation (RFA) who were diagnosed with 3 cm or less in diameters of tumor and less than three nodules, or 5 cm or less single nodule, was carried out in retrospective. To all the tumors exceeding 3 cm in diameter, we added transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE) prior to PEI or RFA. Ninety four percent of PEI cases and 25% of RFA cases received a combination therapy with TAE, respectively. The three-year survivals were 86%, 76%, and 56% in PEI and 96%, 83%, and 68% in RFA for JIS-0, 1, and 2, respectively. The five-year survivals were 69% and 53% in PEI and 95% and 83% in RFA for JIS-0 and 1, respectively. The significant difference in the probability of survival was not confirmed among both treatments. We conclude that the combination therapy, such as combined use of TAE, PEI and RFA as local treatment, can expect almost equivalent effectiveness for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.