Objective: To investigate the clinical efficacy of radiofrequency ablation(RFA)combined with (125)I seed in patients with multiple nodular hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).
Methods: The clinical data of 47 patients with multiple nodular HCC confirmed clinically or pathologically in the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University between January 2009 and September 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were divided into two groups depending on treatment: RFA group(n=29); RFA combined with (125)I seed group(n=18). Survival time was estimated with the Kaplan-Meier analysis. The survival curve was compared by Log-rank test.
Results: The clinical data and tumor situation of patients between two groups did not show significant differences. The follow-up time ranged from 2 to 55 months. At the end of the study, the median progression-free survival of two groups were 18 months and 11 months, and the differences were statistically significant(P=0.036). The overall survival rates in RFA combined with (125)I seed group at 1, 2, and 3 years (94.4%, 78.0%, 66.8%, respectively) were higher than those in RFA group (88.5%, 68.6%, 57.1%, respectively). However, the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant(P=0.554).
Conclusions: For multiple nodular HCC, RFA combined with (125)I seed can prolong progression-free survival, have an advantage in local control rate, and is better than single RFA at short-term curative effect.However, its long-term outcomes should be further explored by a large-sample, multi-center and randomized trial.