Clinical efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization combined with surgery in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) combined with surgery in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS: We retrospective included 89 cases of primary hepatocellular carcinoma in the Department of General Surgery of Fuzhou Infection Hospital from January 2012 to December 2014. For the included 89 subjects, 38 cases received surgery (control group) and other 51 patients received operation followed by postoperative TACE (experiment group). 3 months after the operation, the objective response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) were compared between the two group. Moreover, the Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to evaluate the long-term survival of the two groups. RESULTS: Three months after the operation, the objective response was evaluated for the two groups. The ORR and DCR were 55%, 74% for the control group and 78%, 92% for the experiment group with significant difference between the two groups (P < 0.05); the median survival time was 13. 10 months with 1- and 2-year survival rate of 50% and 21% in the control group; the median survival time was 16.40 months with 1- and 2-year survival rate of 63% and 39% in the experiment group. The hazard ratio was 1.66 with it 95% confidence of 1.05-2.83, which indicated that the patients in the experiment group have less risk of death in the period of follow-up (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Postoperation TACE treatment modality was superior to surgery alone for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.