Efficacy of percutaneous ethanol injection in the adjuvant treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma after TACE

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of percutaneous ethanol injection(PEI) in the adjuvant treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) after tanscatheter arterial chemoembolization(TACE).Methods The study population consisted of 73 consecutive patients with unresectable HCC(China Classification System IIA/IIB),among them 22 were treated with TACE and PEI(experimental group),and the rest 51 were treated only with TACE(control group),and then the time to progress(TTP) and overall survival(OS) of these two groups were analyzed.Results The median TTP was 10 months [95% confidence interval(CI),7.9-12.1 months] in experimental group and 6 months(95% CI,4.7-7.3 months) in control group.The progression free survival(PFS) rate of 3 months,6 months and 1 year was 77.30%,63.61%,and 48.12% of experimental group,respectively,while was 76.51%,42.17% and 24.82% of control group,respectively.The TTP of experimental group was significantly longer than that of control group(P0.05).The median survival period was 17 months [95% confidence interval(CI),11-23 months] of experimental group and 12 months(95% CI,10-14 months) of control group(P0.05).Conclusion Compared with single TACE,the combination of TACE and PEI can obviously postpone disease progress and prolong survival of HCC patients.