Outcomes of microwave ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma adjacent to large vessels: a propensity score analysis

Abstract

// <![CDATA[ $('.header-date').hide();$('#titleAuthors').hide();$('#abstractHeader').hide(); // ]]> Jian-ping Dou1, Jie Yu1, Xiao-huan Yang1, Zhi-gang Cheng1, Zhi-yu Han1, Fang-yi Liu1, Xiao-ling Yu1 and Ping Liang1 1Department of Interventional Ultrasound, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, China Correspondence to: Ping Liang, email: liangping301@126.com Keywords: hepatocellular carcinoma, microwave ablation, vessel, prognosis, propensity score matching Received: August 20, 2016 Accepted: February 01, 2017 Published: February 24, 2017 ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to retrospectively compare the long-term efficacy of MW ablation as a curative therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) adjacent to large vessels(≥3 mm) with that in safe location. Between 2010 and 2016, 406 patients diagnosed with early-stage HCC at Chinese PLA general hospital were enrolled. One-to-one matched pairs between the vessel group and the safe group were generated using propensity score matching. The associations of treatment strategy with overall survival and local tumor progression were determined by Cox regression. Before matching, 113 patients were classified into the vessel group and 293 patients were classified into the vessel group. The patients in the vessel group were more frequently classified as larger tumor size (P<0.05) and higher AFP level (P<0.05) than patients in the safe group. After propensity score matching, 113 pairs of well-matched HCC patients were selected from different treatment groups. No significant differences were found in local tumor progression, overall survival and complication rates for MW ablation as a first-line treatment for the early-stage HCC between two groups. In conclusion, MW ablation provides an effective and safe way to treat early-stage HCC adjacent to large vessels.