Thermal ablation alone vs thermal ablation combined with transarterial chemoembolization for patients with small (<3 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma

Hyperthermia ablation combined with transarterial chemoembolization versus monotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…Identification flow of the studies is exhibited as Figure 1 and Data . A total of 36 eligible studies 39–74 involving a large sample amount of 5036 patients were included finally for the systematic review and meta‐analysis (Figure 1, Table 1, Data ). All of the included studies 39–74 were published in SCI journals and included in the Web of Science with good quality of reports.…”

“…A total of 36 eligible studies 39–74 involving a large sample amount of 5036 patients were included finally for the systematic review and meta‐analysis (Figure 1, Table 1, Data ). All of the included studies 39–74 were published in SCI journals and included in the Web of Science with good quality of reports. The main features of the included trials 39–74 are detailedly presented in Table 1 and Data .…”

“…The sensitivity analysis of RCTs was performed to test the robustness of our findings derived from the meta‐analyses above. A total of 10 RCTs 40,52,55,60,61,64,67,68,71,73 were identified from the 36 included studies, 39–74 which contained 6 studies 60,61,64,67,68,73 of HATACE versus HA monotherapy, 2 studies 52,55 of HATACE versus TACE monotherapy, and 2 studies 40,71 of HATACE versus HA (or TACE) monotherapy. Assessment list of methodological quality of all RCTs is summarized in Table 3.…”

“…All of the included studies 39–74 were published in SCI journals and included in the Web of Science with good quality of reports. The main features of the included trials 39–74 are detailedly presented in Table 1 and Data .…”

“…HATACE has a broad clinical applications for different stages of HCC based on the studies for systematic review, including early or very early stage 39,42,44,47,53,56 (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer [BCLC] stage 0 & A), intermediate stage 42,[45][46][47][48][49] (BCLC stage B), and advanced stage 41,47,48,54 (BCLC stage C & D). However, conflicting conclusions exist among some different studies 39,56,63,64,68,69,73 in regard to the survival benefit from HATACE compared with HA monotherapy for small (≤3 cm) HCC. To explore the potential different benefits associated with the different size classification of HCC, subgroup analyses were carried out for small HCC to compare HATACE with HA alone.…”