Ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) can produce a “fairly-high” five-year survival rate even in patients with large and advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), according to findings from a long-term follow-up study [1].
While RFA has been demonstrated to be a safe and effective, the research group said that very few studies had a follow-up time "adequate to rival that of surgery and [percutaneous ethanol injection]."
In addition, they noted: "Recent published studies on five-year survival after RFA were usually focused on small HCC or early-stage HCC only."
The Chinese study recruited 266 patients to undergo RFA on 392 HCCs; 223 patients were not candidates for surgery, whilst the remaining 43 opted for RFA as first-line therapy. Patients were followed-up for up to six years.
The researchers reported overall post-RFA survival rates at the first, third and fifth year of 82.9 per cent, 57.9 per cent, and 42.9 per cent, respectively.
Survival was significantly higher for the 60 patients with Stage I HCC compared to patients with Stage II-IV HCC: 71.6 per cent compared with 41.2 per cent at five years, respectively. The corresponding survival rate in patients with recurrent HCC was 38.2 per cent.
The researchers commented: "Our results demonstrated that RFA could produce complete necrosis of HCC in most cases and the five-year survival rate of patients with large and advanced HCC was fairly high."
They added: "RFA, as a promising therapy, cannot only achieve favourable outcome on early stage HCC, but also effectively treat advanced or recurrent HCC."
[1] Radiofrequency ablation of hepatocellular carcinoma: Long-term outcome and prognostic factors
Eur J Radiol 2008; 67: 336-347
