Comparison of two transarterial chemoembolization strategies for hepatocellular carcinoma

This retrospective study aimed to compare the efficacy of and tolerance to two center-related conventional transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) strategies in the management of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

All HCC patients in whom TACE was initiated in the two centers from June 2008 to July 2011 were included. The TACE strategy performed in center 1 was "on demand" with selective injections of idarubicin, whereas the TACE strategy in center 2 was based "on scheduled" non-selective injections of epirubicin. Toxicity was evaluated using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v4.0.

One hundred and fifty HCC patients were included. Median time to treatment failure was significantly higher in center 1, 13.1 months vs. 7.9 months in center 2 (hazard ratio, 2.32; p<10-3 in multivariate analysis). Median overall survival was 21.1 months in center 1 vs. 18.4 months in center 2 (p=NS). The proportion of grade ≥ 3 adverse events and mean hospitalisation duration for the overall TACE treatment were significantly greater in center 2 than in center 1: 56% vs. 32% (p<0.01) and 14.2 ± 7.2 days vs. 10.3 ± 7.0 days (p<0.01), respectively.

Our results failed to show any significant survival differences between two center-related TACE strategies but showed a significantly smaller proportion of grade ≥ 3 adverse events and shorter hospitalisation for the overall treatment when the "on-demand" strategy was used.