TUCSON, AZ — How often does local recurrence occur in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who undergo selective transarterial radioembolisation (TARE) or transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE) and achieve a complete response (CR) radiologically?
That was the question recently addressed in an article published recently in the journal Clinical Radiology.1
Researchers from the University of Arizona in Tucson, the Minneapolis VA Hospital and University of Minnesota retrospectively reviewed all patients undergoing treatment with TARE or TACE at a single academic institution. Excluded were those who had been treated previously, presented with multifocal disease, had nonselective TARE or TACE or did not achieve a complete response (CR) radiologically.
Of the 110 patients included, 60 had undergone TACE and 50 TARE. The study authors noted that TARE patients were older (66.4 ± 9.4 versus 61.2 ± 5.6 years, p<0.001) and had larger tumors (4.4 ± 2.2 versus 3 ± 1.4 cm, p=0.002).
Their results indicated that TACE patients were significantly more likely to suffer a local recurrence (31/60, 51.7% versus 9/50, 18%, p<0.001) and had a significantly shorter time to recurrence (median 8.3 {interquartile range [IQR]}: 12 versus median 17.9 [IQR: 23.5] months, p=0.001).
“A local time to progression (TTP) Kaplan-Meier curve demonstrated TACE patients had a significantly shorter local TTP (hazard ratio [HR]: 7.2; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.64-14.24; p<0.001) and treatment modality (TACE or TARE; HR: 0.05; 95% CI: 0.005-0.5; p=0.01) was found to be associated with local recurrences on multivariate Cox proportional HR analysis,” the researchers explained. “When overall TTP was evaluated, again TACE patients were found to have a significantly shorter TTP (HR: 2.13 [1.28-3.53], p=0.004).”
The study team suggested that, In HCC patients undergoing selective treatment who achieve a CR radiologically, “those treated with TARE may be less likely to suffer recurrence, either local or general, than those treated with TACE.”
- Young S, Sanghvi T, Ragulojan R, Torkian P, Todatry S, D’Souza D, Flanagan S, Golzarian J. Local recurrence following a complete radiologic response in hepatocellular carcinoma patients: comparison of transarterial chemoembolisation and transarterial radioembolisation. Clin Radiol. 2024 Jan 29:S0009-9260(24)00064-3. doi: 10.1016/j.crad.2024.01.014. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38341344.