Clinical study of different interventional treatments for primary hepatocellular carcinoma based on propensity-score matching

BACKGROUND Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization(TACE)is the main treatment for patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma(PHC)who miss the opportunity to undergo surgery.Conventional TACE(c-TACE)uses iodized oil as an embolic agent,which is easily washed by blood and affects its efficacy.Drug-eluting bead TACE(DEB-TACE)can sustainably release chemotherapeutic drugs and has a long embolization time.However,the clinical characteristics of patients before the two types of interventional therapies may differ,possibly affecting the conclusion.Only a few studies have compared these two interventions using propensity-score matching(PSM).AIM To analyze the clinical effects of DEB-TACE and c-TACE on patients with PHC based on PSM.METHODS Patients with PHC admitted to Dangyang People’s Hospital(March 2020 to March 2024)were retrospectively enrolled and categorized into groups A(DEB-TACE,n=125)and B(c-TACE,n=106).Sex,age,Child-Pugh grade,tumor-node-meta-stasis stage,and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score were selected for 1:1 PSM.Eighty-six patients each were included post-matching.Clinical efficacy,liver function indices(aspartate aminotransferase,alanine aminotransferase,total bilirubin,and albumin),tumor serum markers,and adverse reactions were compared between the groups.RESULTS The objective response and disease control rates were significantly higher in group A(80.23%and 97.67%,respectively)than in group B(60.47%and 87.21%,respectively)(P<0.05).Post-treatment levels of aspartate aminotransferase,alanine aminotransferase,and total bilirubin were lower in group A than in group B(P<0.05),whereas post-treatment levels of albumin in group A were comparable to those in group B(P>0.05).Post-treatment levels of tumor serum markers were significantly lower in group A than in group B(P<0.05).Patients in groups A and B had mild-to-moderate fever and vomiting symptoms,which improved with conservative treatment.The total incidence of adverse reactions was significantly higher in group B(22.09%)than in group A(6.97%)(P<0.05).CONCLUSION DEB-TACE has obvious therapeutic effects on patients with PHC.It can improve liver function indices and tumor markers of patients without increasing the rate of liver toxicity or adverse reactions.

Emerging curative-intent minimally-invasive therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC)is the most common cause of liver malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths universally.Cure can be achieved for early stage HCC,which is defined as 3 or fewer lesions less than or equal to 3 cm in the setting of Child-Pugh A or B and an ECOG of 0.Patients outside of these criteria who can be down-staged with loco-regional therapies to resection or liver transplantation(LT)also achieve curative outcomes.Traditionally,surgical resection,LT,and ablation are considered curative therapies for early HCC.However,results from recently conducted LEGACY study and DOSISPHERE trial demonstrate that transarterial radio-embolization has curative outcomes for early HCC,leading to its recent incorporation into the Barcelona clinic liver criteria guidelines for early HCC.This review is based on current evidence for curativeintent loco-regional therapies including radioembolization for early-stage HCC.

The immune-chemo-embolization effect of temperature sensitive gold nanomedicines against liver cancer

Although transcatheter arterial chemo-embolization(TACE)plays a key role on clinical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),it was greatly limited by the poor synergistic effect between chemotherapeutics and physical embolization to tumor-feeding arteries.In the present work,a temperature sensitive polymer poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-b-methacrylic acid)(PNA),which was modified with gold nanoparticles(AuNP@PNA),was successfully used to encapsulate doxorubicin(DOX)by electrostatic binding with their carboxyl groups.The resultant gold nanomedicines(AuNP@PNA/DOX)exhibited temperature responsive sol-gel phase transition,favorable shear thinning effect and X-ray angiography.By in vivo evaluation of vascular embolization on VX2-tumor-bearing rabbits,AuNP@PNA/DOX exhibited far better antitumor efficacy than Lipiodol/DOX,on either tumor growth inhibition,proliferation,apoptosis,necrosis or anti-metastasis.Owing to sufficient embolization to tumor vascular networks,AuNP@PNA/DOX down-regulated the expression levels of HIF-1α,VEGF and MMP-9,and prompted more efficient activation on CD3+/CD8+T cells and the related cytokines,suggesting the synergistic effect between AuNP@PNA and DOX on the improvement of post-operative tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment.With their favorable pharmcokinetics and biocompatibility,AuNP@PNA/DOX is promising to be developed as a multi-functional artery-imaging/embolic agent with immune-chemo-embolization for enhancing TACE efficacy on HCC.

Locoregional therapy response in patients with hepatocellular cancer waiting for liver transplantation:Only selection or biological effect?

Locoregional treatments(LRT) represent a broad strategy used for reducing the risk of drop-off and contextually improving the survivals in patients with hepatocellular cancer receiving a liver transplantation(LT). However, it is not sufficiently clear if LRT are only a surrogate of tumor aggressiveness or if they consent a real benefit in terms of tumor stabilization. A recent study by Pommergaard et al reported the results from the European Liver Transplant Registry. Patients receiving LRT before LT had better 5-year survival rates respect to no-LRT cases(69.7% vs 65.8%; P < 0.001). When the number of LRT was tested, one-to-two treatments were connected with improved survivals respect to no treatment [hazard ratio(HR) = 0.85 and 0.71, respectively]. The efficacy of LRT was also reported in the presence of larger tumors(HR = 0.78) and micro-macrovascular invasion(HR = 0.71). The results observed in the present study are partially in discordance with other analyses showing a detrimental effect of LRT. The main problem in the interpretation of these results is connected with the possible initial selection biases present in the studies. The most recent guidelines suggest to perform LRT before the transplant, but the level of evidence is typically low due to the absence of prospectively designed studies.

Analysis of the Curative Effect of Preoperative Intra-Arterial Infusion Chemoembolization on Stage IB2-IIB Uterine Cervix Cancer

OBJECTIVETo investigate the short-term and long-termtherapeutic efficacy of preoperative intra-arterial infusion chemo-embolization on stage IB_2-IIB uterine cervix cancer (UCC).METHODS A total of 143 patients with Stage IB_2-IIB UCCwere divided into a clinical trial group and a control group.Thepatients in the clinical trial group(n=86)were treated with acombined therapy,i.e.,preoperative intra-arterial infusion chemo-embolization,surgical therapy and postoperative radiotherapy,and those in the control group (n=57) were given surgical therapyand post-operative radiotherapy.The adverse effects,changes inlocal lesion and pathological examinations of the cancer,and thestate during the surgery were observed after the intra-arterialinfusion chemo-embolization.The survival rate and recurrencerate between the two groups were compared.RESULTS The total effective rate of the intra-arterial infusionchemo-embolization on Stage IB_2-IIB UCC was 93.02%.Thetreatment could reduce tumor size,bring about retro-conversionsof the clinical stage of the tumors and pathological grade of thecancer cells,and decrease the quantity of intra-operative bloodloss as well as the operating time.It could significantly improvethe 5-year survival rate (P<0.05),and reduce the 2 and 5-yeartumor recurrence rates (P<0.05).Moreover,its side effects werelittle.CONCLUSION Preoperative intra-arterial infusion chemo-embolization can create conditions for radical operation,lower thepostoperative recurrence rate,and improve the prognosis in thepatients with UCC.It is an effective therapy in treating UCC.