Postoperative therapy options for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Area of Science:

• Hepatology and Oncology

Background:

• Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence post-treatment is common and linked to poor prognosis.
• Existing adjuvant therapies lack consensus for preventing HCC recurrence after resection or ablation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review randomized controlled trials on adjuvant and chemotherapies for preventing HCC recurrence.
• To evaluate the efficacy of various treatments in improving recurrence-free and overall survival.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a systematic review of 39 randomized controlled trials with 4113 participants.
• Focused on adjuvant or chemotherapy interventions following potentially curative hepatic resection (HR) or radiofrequency ablation (RFA).

Main Results:

• Transarterial chemoembolization showed improved survival in high-risk HCC patients.
• Lamivudine demonstrated benefits for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC, and interferon-alfa for hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related HCC.
• Interferon-beta, other HBV therapies, and several other agents showed no definitive clinical benefits.

Conclusions:

• Specific adjuvant therapies offer improved survival for certain HCC patient groups.
• Further research is needed due to trial heterogeneity and small sample sizes.
• Identified evidence gaps to guide future research in HCC recurrence prevention.