SynthesisWorld journal of surgical oncology2024
Comparison of liver resection and radiofrequency ablation in long-term survival among patients with early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis of randomized trials and high-quality propensity score-matched studies.
Synthesis in World journal of surgical oncology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Liver resection versus radiofrequency ablation for solitary small hepatocellular carcinoma measuring ≤3 cm: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of surgery (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Liver resection versus radiofrequency ablation or transarterial chemoembolization for early multinodular BCLC-A hepatocellular carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of liver cancer · 2026Article
- Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer strategy adherence in hepatocellular carcinoma and its influence on long-term outcomes.Journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2026Article
- Survival and safety outcomes of hepatectomy versus ablation in hepatocellular carcinoma within Milan criteria and clinically significant portal hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of surgery (London, England) · 2026Article
- Large Language Models for Preoperative Microvascular Invasion Prediction in Hepatocellular Carcinoma: A Multicenter Comparison with Radiologists and Treatment Outcomes.Journal of hepatocellular carcinoma · 2026Article
- Outcomes of robotic liver resection and intraoperative radiofrequency ablation for hepatocellular carcinoma in posterior segments VII and VIII.World journal of gastrointestinal surgery · 2025Article
- Should We Fear the Frail? A Review on the Impact of Frailty on Liver Surgery.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Automated Literature Screening for Hepatocellular Carcinoma Treatment Through Integration of 3 Large Language Models: Methodological Study.JMIR medical informatics · 2025Article
- Overall Survival and Complication Rates in the Treatment of Liver Carcinoma: A Comparative Study of Ultrasound, Computed Tomography, and Combined Ultrasound and Computed Tomography Guidance for Radiofrequency Ablation.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Competing risk analysis of surgical resectionTranslational cancer research · 2025Article
- Treatment strategies for solitary hepatocellular carcinoma: comparative outcomes of radiofrequency ablation vs. laparoscopic liver resection based on tumor location.Surgical endoscopy · 2025Article
- Comparison of long-term clinical outcomes between radiofrequency ablation and hepatic resection in patients with small (≤2 cm) hepatocellular carcinoma.Hepatic oncology · 2024Article
- Comparison of laparoscopic hepatectomy and radiofrequency ablation for small hepatocellular carcinoma patients: a SEER population-based propensity score matching study.Updates in surgery · 2024Article
- IGF2BP1 accelerates the aerobic glycolysis to boost its immune escape in hepatocellular carcinoma microenvironment.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Case report: Liver PEComa after kidney transplantation in recipient with tuberous sclerosis complex.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhether radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and liver resection (LR) are comparable treatments for early-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is controversial. We conducted this study to provide ample clinical evidence for the argument.
methodsThe PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases were systematically searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and propensity score-matched (PSM) studies that compared long-term outcomes of both RFA and LR for patients with early-stage HCC. The hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were calculated.
resultsThirty-six studies consisting of six RCTs and 30 PSM studies were included in this study, and a total of 7384 patients were involved, with 3694 patients being treated with LR and 3690 patients with RFA. Meta-analysis showed that LR provided better OS and DFS than RFA (HR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.13-1.31; HR: 1.56, 95% CI: 1.39-1.74, respectively). A sensitivity analysis indicated that the results were stable. For the subgroup of patients with BCLC 0 stage, RFA and LR resulted in similar OS and DFS. For the subgroup of patients with single tumor sizes less than 3 cm, RFA reached similar OS (HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 0.90-1.58) but worse DFS compared with LR (HR: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.11-1.90). For the subgroup of ablation margin larger than 0.5 cm, LR still resulted in better OS than RFA (HR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.09-1.53); while the ablation margin was larger than 1 cm, both RFA and LR resulted in similar OS. The modality of RFA was also a factor that affected results. Subgroup analysis showed that patients receiving ultrasound-guided RFA had worse OS and DFS than LR (HR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.14-1.36; HR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.25-1.66, respectively).
conclusionsMeta-analysis showed that LR provided better OS and DFS for patients with early-stage HCC. However, RFA and LR had similar effects on long-term survival in patients with BCLC 0 stage HCC. RFA and LR probably had similar effects on OS in patients with solitary HCC less than 3 cm or when the ablation margin was larger than 1 cm which need more studies to confirm. The effects of different modalities of RFA on long-term survival are needed for further assessment.
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