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Updated: Jul 12, 2026
Thermal Ablation for the Treatment of Abdominal Tumors
Published on: March 7, 2011
Stereotactic body radiation therapy versus radiofrequency ablation in hepatocellular carcinoma: an up-date
Daopeng Yang1,2, Ke Lin1, Yan Wang1
1Department of Medical Ultrasonics, Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Ultrasound, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No.58 Zhongshan Road 2, Guangzhou, 510080, China.
Purpose:
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) are available locoregional curative treatments for nonsurgical Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. We aimed to compare the clinical efficacy and safety of SBRT versus RFA for HCC.
Methods:
A computerized bibliographic search was performed using PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science to identify comparative studies. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS), and the secondary outcomes were freedom from local progression (FFLP) and treatment-related complications.
Results:
In total, there were 17 trials involving 22,180 patients. Patients receiving RFA showed significantly better 1-, 2- year OS (OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.50-0.96, P = 0.141,OR 0.69, 95% CI 0.53-0.89, P = 0.082), whereas SBRT resulted in significantly better 1-, 2-, 3- year FFLP (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.44-3.34, P = 0.303; OR 1.57, 95% CI 1.12-2.19, P = 0.268; OR 2.22, 95% CI 1.70-2.90, P = 0.470). There were no significant differences for 3-, 5- year OS in both groups (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.65-1.38, P = 0.001; OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.68-1.34, P = 0.016). The overall treatment-related complication rate did not differ significantly between the two treatment arms, while SBRT was significantly associated with Child-Pugh worsening.
Conclusions:
Though SBRT has excellent FFLP, RFA yields superior short-term survival for HCC. But the discrepancy between FFLP and OS requires further investigation.
